MOTU: Horde War Book 1, Behold, The Horde
by Deltara
Summary: Earth is drawn into the war against the evil Horde, and a legend no one believes in is born. Story complete. Please R&R.
1. Prologue

BOOK ONE

Behold, The Horde

PROLOGUE

   Two children ran laughing and playing throughout the courtyard of Palace Eternia. The boy and girl were playing the time-honored game of hide-n-seek. Their antics eventually brought them to the low stonewall overlooking the countryside.

   The pair stopped the game abruptly, awed by the sight laid bare before their young eyes. The war had been over for nearly five years, but the scars were still painfully evident.

   The mother of the errant children emerged from a stand of tress and hurried to the kids. "Come back to the park. You shouldn't be so close to the outer wall."

   Ever inquisitive, the boy asked, "but why have a low stone wall here if you can't look out at the landscape?"

   "The land was damaged. Some very bad people damaged it years ago," the mother replied quickly, looking anxiously about for someone. "Come. We must go before…"

   "No," a feminine voice barked sternly from a shadowed grove. "It's all right," the voice continued gently. "It's been a long time since I heard the sounds of laughter in this park." A slim hand rose into the light and waved the trio over. "Bring them here."

   Apprehensive, the mother took her children to stand before the shadowed figure.

   "What are your names?"

   "I'm Darnon," the boy responded immediately. "This is my sister, Lisil."

   "She doesn't talk much," the shadows observed.

   "No," Darnon agreed, "she's always quiet. We think there may be something wrong with her."

   "Yes," the woman shrouded in darkness agreed. "Or something very _right_." The woman leaned forward enough for the light to illuminate her features. "The quiet ones are the ones who will change the universe, Darnon. The loud ones simply take all the credit."

   Kodec Ugnor, former Sorceress of Grayskull, former member of the original Council of Elders, looked the trio over with a critical eye. Though still quite youthful because the immortality bestowed upon her by Grayskull was still with her, the eyes, and the creases at their corners, betrayed the thousands of years of life experiences.

   "Are you really a member of the Council of Elders?" Darnon asked, not really convinced this was the woman of legend.

   Kodec smiled sadly. "Yes. This medallion I wear signifies that. So, either I am one of the Elders, or I am in a lot of trouble. Or both." Removing the star-shaped medallion measuring two inches in diameter hung on a gold chain, the Elder motioned the boy forward. "For the next five minutes _you_ are now an Elder. You may give one command. Anything you want. Make it a good one." Kodec leaned back expectantly, a slight smile tugging at her lips.

   Darnon fingered the starburst medallion with its inlaid sapphire, thinking hard. "Tell me a story," he blurted suddenly.

   The mother scolded him harshly, but Kodec blunted it, saying, "No, it's all right. He did far better with that question than I did. So, Darnon, what kind of a story would you like to hear?"

  Lisil whispered quickly into her brother's ear, but he dismissed it immediately. "I want a story about great battles, and wars, and heroes, and villains."

   Smile still gracing her lips, Kodec inquired, "And what would your sister like?"

  Darnon hesitated briefly, answering, "Nothing." That comment earned him a slap on the arm from Lisil. "She wants to hear a true story."

   Kodec nodded. "Then I shall give you both what you want. A story of great battles. Of soldiers of Light and armies of Darkness. I will tell you about the places where they lived, and loved, and fought, and died." She pointed to Lisil. "A true story"

   The Elder leaned forward again and began her narration. "It began with the Earthers ten of their years ago. They are the quiet ones I spoke to you of earlier. They live in a relatively uninteresting part of the galaxy. A place of no strategic importance to the Horde so they didn't bother much with it. The Elders knew this, and knew also it was the perfect place to set events into motion that would spell doom for the Evil Horde…"


	2. Ch 01

ONE 

  Earth Year 2015

   With high expectations, Human beings leave earth to establish a thriving colony on the moon, the first step toward expanding into the solar system, then the galaxy. The wars that plagued mankind for generations finally came to an end in the eleventh year of earth's twenty-first century. Following the abolishment of the United Nations, a new World government arose. The President of the World Nation was elected from the leaders of the individual countries. All governments retained their own autonomy to govern their peoples. In matters dealing with disputes between two or more nations, the World Nation stepped in to settle things. If force was required, an army was raised with men and material from all the governments who consented to contribute. Those assets were permanently transferred to the World Nation armies with the full understanding that any nation contributing may end up facing those forces later. The people selected had to be carefully screened because their duty in the new army may require they oppose their own nation in settling a dispute.

   The ideals upon which the new nation was built endured its first year of existence better than expected. Only one major confrontation requiring the active use of force reared its ugly head, and was quickly put down. With a stabilized, if fragile, peace settling across the lands, Humans looked to the stars to continue and thrive.

   In the earth year 2015, the Hubble telescope, having been towed from earth orbit into a stationary position beyond the moon, chanced to catch site of strange alien ships entering the solar system. Their design spoke of a vastly more advanced and superior race. The grace and somewhat ugly beauty of the vessels disguised the evil force within.

   With the known universe under his dominion, Horde Prime remembered stories of a world Skeletor once visited briefly in pursuit of He-man and the second Cosmic Key constructed by Gwildor. A shining blue/white planet known locally as Earth. A brief recon mission showed earth's technological level to be inferior to the Horde. An easy conquest. Lacking new targets to conquer, Horde Prime gives the order to send a small force to earth. Their orders are to take through diplomacy first. A departure from the normal procedure, but Horde Primes investigation into Skeletor's visit revealed the strength of these human's will. If diplomacy failed, the robot armies loaded into the starships were more than sufficient to eliminate all resistance.

   First contact with the Horde ambassador, someone called Catra, went well enough. Most communicating took place while they were in earth orbit. After days of talks, Catra agreed to a face-to-face meeting with the World Nation President outside the former United Nations building.

   The landing went like clockwork up until touchdown when all hell broke loose. No one knew exactly how it started, but a single shot rang out just as Catra appeared in the open hatch of the grounded shuttle. The metal slug ricocheted harmlessly off the hull scant inches from the Horde woman, who ducked quickly back inside. The hatch slammed shut in the faces of the assembled World Nation leadership and roared off into the sky on power atmospheric engines. An outraged Catra growled and spat about human duplicity and deceit and called for retribution.

   All six Horde warships dropped from orbit toward pre-selected targets. All military bases. An example of Horde military might the pitiful humans would not forget. Dropships and fighters disgorged from the warships. The fighters flew cover for the landings strafing the enemy troops coming out to meet the invaders. Dropships grounded right on the runways and parade grounds were scores of robot troopers and tanks rumbled down loading ramps.

   The fearsome Horde Tank mounted twin laser canon, antipersonnel-mine ejectors and lasers, and each bore the ugly visage of Hordak on the front. The fighters mounted heavy lasers, bomb bays and the same grim visage. The troopers all measured seven feet in height; a blood-red batwing crest painted on the breastplates, and was armored against all known weaponry. Their domed heads housed the computerized brains with narrow red slits for eyes. Standard arms were flat black laser rifles, which could be reversed to use the bladed spear where the butt stock would be.

   All but one base fell within a matter minutes. Last base to fall under attack actually repelled the invaders due to a little blind luck on the part of a few courageous people who had no training in heavy weapons. After taking serious losses, the troopers and tanks withdrew to their dropships and blasted for the sky under a protective screen of fighters.

   Horde Prime withdrew his force to the Horde World, promising to return with suitable forces to conquer earth. No amount of negotiating would spare them this fate. Conquest had been his goal all along.

   Such was the state of affairs when another alien ship appeared in the solar system shortly after the Horde departed. The ship drifted dead in space just beyond the moon. Although it appeared badly damaged, the configuration was vastly different from the Horde warships. Rumor had it when the boarding party entered the derelict they found someone, or something, alive. The rumors drifted toward a humanoid, but no one could ever confirm that. The ship was then towed down to a secure facility on the moon and the discovery shuttled off to earth, never to be heard or spoken of again.

  Cheyenne Mountain, United States, Earth

  13 March 2017

   General Eugene 'Mean Gene' Hammond sat in his office buried twenty-five stories under the Cheyenne Mountains reviewing the highly classified report on the incidents that took place two years before. Evidence of the setup precipitating the Horde strikes was circumstantial at best, but it did shed light on the matter. Conquest was their aim, not peaceful co-existence. And time was running out on their planned return to finish what they started. The information obtained from the alien spacecraft now secured deep beneath the moon's surface provided invaluable. However, it didn't reveal a viable way f defending against the Horde's superior technology.

   Oh, Area 51 and the secret labs on the moon have been reverse engineering the captured weapons and puzzling over the few troopers and tanks destroyed in battle, but they were no closer to an answer than the top military and civilian planners. And their 'Guest' could only provide some much information. The galaxy had changed much in the time the starship was lost – wherever it was.

   There was one hint, though. A tidbit of information the Guest imparted and verified against decrypted data from the starship's computers. Legend held of six mystical suits of armor each with incredible firepower and durability used by six noble warriors in the days before the rise of Horde Prime and his empire. These people -called Guardians -were defeated by Horde Prime, but the armor was spirited away before it could be destroyed. That was all great and fine, but there was no clue as to where to begin looking. It was a big universe, after all.

   General Hammond dropped the thick report on his neat and orderly oak desk, leaned back in the comfortable leather chair, and swiveled around to look at the trinkets given to him upon departing previous assignments. Mementos of past commands whose experiences molded him into the general officer he was today. "The more I look at those reports, the more questions I come up with. A legend no one believes in. Two people whose power has been all but extinguished from the universe. And one planet about to be caught up in a galactic war. When the President of the United States personally called me out of retirement, I wish I had never answered that phone."

   "The end is not near," a quiet voice spoke from deep shadow across the spacious office. "The birth of a legend is at hand."

   "But I have no idea where to start looking! Even if your ship is space-worthy, where do we start looking?"

   A hesitation. "I am still working on that. We know the armor is somehow calling out to six individuals. Maybe that will help plot the first course. My visions are sporadic at best. The woman I speak with is someone I thought long dead. She isn't exactly forthcoming with details."

   "Do we know who five of the six are?" General Hammond asked, returning to the desk, leaning his elbows on it.

   "Yes. I'm told they are being brought here. They should all be assembled by the end of the week."

   "All right. We'll all get acquainted at that time. The starship crew, the Delta Force unit – everyone all at once and proceed from there." He was going to politely ask the Guest to leave him to his thoughts, but the shadows had already lost much of their inky blackness indicating a presence. "I hate it when she does that," the general sighed.

  Cheyenne Mountain, United States, Earth

  19 March 2017

   The auditorium was just over half full by the time Adrian arrived. He didn't much like large gatherings, and the amount people, especially the Delta Force members, made him uneasy. He just didn't like crowds. Five other people, only one of which was an enlisted man like him, also gravitated toward the back. Quiet conversation broken occasionally by brief laughter pervaded the auditorium. Many glanced at the five newcomers, but none gave the five much thought. That everyone had to sign an affidavit of confidentiality before entering the auditorium meant they had some purpose here.

   "ROOM! ATTUN-HUT!" a master sergeant announced. All conversation ceased abruptly and all but the three civilians at the back snapped to attention. The civilians had been briefed to stand as a courtesy when General Hammond and a cloaked figure arrived not on the stage as expected, but walking around the arched front.

   "Please, take your seats." The general waited until everyone got him or her self situated.

   Adrian watched the cloaked figure quietly slide off the viewer's left well out of the way. He couldn't tell anything about the shadow except by a brief glimpse of booted feet. Blue suede, by the look of it, and the cut of those boots indicated feminine feet. Adrian returned his attention to General Hammond, but kept an eye on the cloaked person of the corner of his eye.

   Adrian's casual observation did not go unnoticed. The Guest, secure in the deep shadow of the hood, observed everyone openly especially the two military and three civilians at the back. These were the ones to whom the mystical armor called out to. Although he couldn't see, the Guest met Adrian's gaze and stared deep into his soul. _Yes, he's the one, the one with a warrior's strength and a leader's heart._

   "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I realize the arrangements to get you here were short-notice in some cases, so I'll try to get this over with as quickly as possible so you can get settled in. As I'm sure most of you are aware, the time limit for the return of the Horde forces is almost at an end. We believe the attack two years ago was engineered by them as an excuse to assault and conquer this world. It is my job to see to it that doesn't happen."

   Murmured comments rippled throughout the room. One of the Delta Force people raised their hand. General Hammond acknowledged him. "Sir we didn't have much of a chance against the forces they landed two years ago. If they come with an army, what chance will we have this time?"

   Hammond expected such a question, and prepared for it. "We have completed reconstruction of the alien ship discovered beyond the moon after the Horde left. It is almost ready for space flight. I know, one ship against what they can field is nothing, but that isn't the mission of this ship. Colonel Jojo Majourney-" a striking woman in her mid-thirties with a touch of gray rose half out of her seat, hand raised to identify herself  "-is the captain of the starship. She and her crew are to transport this Delta Force unit and the five individuals and our Guest on a mission to revive a legend."

   The lecture droned on about the legend of the Guardian Armor, the specifics of the starship, the roles of the crew and unit, and the apparent state of affairs on the planets Eternia and Etheria. How they new the state of those two worlds had not been explained, but Adrian suspected it had something to do with the mysterious guest. All this took place as if the five at the back of the auditorium had already signed on. Maybe the others had, but Adrian had not. Dreams of a powerful suit of armor haunted his dreams calling to him just like the others. While they might be all but ready to accept being chosen by the armor to wield their power, Adrian had yet to be convinced.

   _Question everything, but do it respectfully,_ Adrian's first jet engine trainer had constantly harped on. _Take nothing at face value._ Indeed, words to live by, especially now.

   General Hammond ended his briefing and introductions, and asked for questions. Adrian's hand shot up immediately. The recognized him, and he stood up to address the many eyes turned his direction. "Sir, you mentioned six people have been chosen by the armor to wield its power. I see only five chosen ones including myself."

   "Yes, that's correct," General Hammond acknowledged.

   "So, who's the sixth person?"

   General Hammond's gaze darted immediately to the cloaked guest, who nodded almost imperceptibly. "We are still working on that. For now you five are all we have."

   "Then we should _all _be acquainted in the interests of becoming one, big happy family," Adrian replied before another question could be taken. "Does the lady have a name? Or are we to call her 'Guest'?"

   That drew more than a few astonished stares. How could he have known the cloaked person's gender when said cloak was styled to prevent such a thing? Several looked the motionless figure up and down, and still could not see whatever it was Adrian saw. Or decided he may be guessing at the individual's gender.

   "All that will be revealed in due time, sergeant," General Hammond replied neutrally.

   Adrian opened his mouth to say something, shut it again. General Hammond solved that indecision for him. "Go ahead and say it, Cobra. Get it out in the open now. That's why this meeting was called," the general replied gently. He knew he had to be gently with these people; the five to whom the armor called out to especially.

   "I'm not comfortable committing to something without any data to go on, general. Makes for pretty sloppy engine maintenance, and could cost a pilots or aircrews their lives."

   "Fair enough, but I can't reveal anything further unless I know you are in this all the way. And that goes for everyone in this room. I'm sorry I have to play it this way, but once the full scope of what we face is known, you'll understand why." Hammond explained to the audience as a whole.

   "I guess I'm just not ready yet," Adrian replied, turned away from the assembly, and quickly exited through the nearest set of doors.

   Everyone in the room felt the same way to one degree or another. Adrian simply voiced what was on all their minds. When the meeting broke up fifteen minutes later, General Hammond waiting for everyone to leave before conferring with the alien visitor. "How could he have known you are female? There was no way to tell through that cloak. Even I couldn't guess if I didn't already know."

   "He is a very perceptive individual. He sees everything without looking like he is looking. That's why he took the position he did when everyone assembled."

   "Like taking a position in a tavern to survey the whole for potential trouble."

   "Essentially, yes. And knowing thus about him, he undoubtedly saw my boots when I walked in," she replied in that same enchanting voice she commonly used.

   Hammond's eyes immediately dropped to the booted feet barely poking out from under the cloak. Though there wasn't much to see there was enough to deduce the slender cut of the blue-dyed suede material as fitting a woman's foot.

   "With perceptions and attention to detail like that, I'm glad he's on our side," Hammond replied. The cloaked woman agreed.

   Cheyenne Mountain, United States, Earth

   20 March 2017

   Adrian Cobretti tossed and turned as the dream once again gripped him in its terrifying embrace. This one was the worst yet. Adrian walked through streets of devastation that were once New York, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and hundreds more across the world. Trains of slaves linked with neck chains marking slump-shouldered through a gauntlet of mixed Horde troopers. Most were the standard hulking gray-armored types with black leather in the jointed areas, bloody batwing crest on the breastplate, and domed head. Mixed in were thinner troopers all in black with the armor cut reminding Adrian of some sort of medieval knight in a strange sort of way. The hulking troopers sported laser rifles with standard butt stocks and stun batons clipped to utility belts. The black troops also carried laser rifles, but the stock was replaced with a wicked-looking dual-pronged spear end. And they carried bean sabers clipped to their utility belts.

   The scene shifted to other worlds. The images came rapid-fire, too quick for the eye to follow. Adrian figured they were the many worlds crashed by the relentless expansion of Horde armies. Two worlds in particular came to mind then. Etheria, with its forbidding Fright Zone, from which Hordak surveyed his domain, and Eternia where the once human King Hiss ruled from Palace Eternia.

   The last stop was before a mighty castle. Adrian stood at the edge of a bridge with twin arches staring across a bottomless expanse to wide for a mortal human to jump even with a running start; not that there was anything like a ledge on the far side to leap to. The entire structure looked like some kind of alien arachnid with towers at the front corners framing a skull face. The closed bridge he somehow knew as the jawbridge slowly began is rickety decent. Thunder roared and lightning flashed throwing unearthly shadows against the gray/green stone structure. The bridge came to rest with a crash. It looked ever inch like its name. Stone teeth lining the edges and rippled down the center like the bridge and archways leading up to it. A glowing blue nimbus pulsed just within the open mouth. As Adrian watched, a deep-throated laughter filled the air as a mechanical three-fingers hand reached through the nimbus straight for him…

   Adrian snapped full awake and upright strangling a scream. Sweat glistened on his body and the sheets were soaked in it once again. Struggling to dispel the nightmare, Adrian levered himself out of bed and padded into the bathroom. Standing before the sink his splashed cold water onto his face for a minute or two while the nightmare released him from its terrifying grip. Staring long and hard at his own reflection, Adrian came to the only decision left open to him.

   General Hammond called a meeting bright and early that morning. Those who were committed were to attend. The cloaked visitor was there along with four of the five people the mysterious Guardian armor called out to.

   Jake Rockwell, the only other military person of the five, Army through and through, and survivor of the attack on Rhein Mein Air Base in Germany. Lithe, black-haired Sonya Boradni from the former Soviet Union survived the assault on Moscow. Brad Johnson and Jeromy Ironwood witnessed the attacks on New York and Edwards Air Force Base respectively. They were also told that Adrian Cobretti was the one who turned the tide in the battle at Edwards AFB, although he was later charged with cowardice in the face of the enemy when he took off to commandeer a humvee that had been looked with weapons by the base security forces, but was ambushed before it could reach the battlefield. Adrian brought it into the fight and, with others aiding him, found weak points in the trooper and drove the invaders back to their dropship.

   Colonel Majourney attended representing her entire command crew. As was Colonel Jonathon Markson, commander of the Delta Force unit, representing his entire command.

   General Hammond took his place at the head of the oak conference table and was about to start by revealing the appearance and identity of the 'Guest' when Adrian Cobretti burst into the room unannounced. He walked to end opposite the general, leaned on both hands and stared straight at Hammond. The disheveled look about him and the look in his eyes confirmed the nature of the nightmares just recently discussed. Colonels Majourney and Markson were skeptical, but that vanished upon looking into the man's eyes.

   "Are you all right, Adrian?" Hammond asked, even though the very look of the man indicated otherwise.

   "Just tell me one thing, general. We're going out there to stop them, right? Not to make concessions with, or make peace with, but to stop them. To get this armor and end the tyranny of this Horde Prime once and for all." Adrian had to concentrate hard to get it all phrased right. The nightmare still tried stubbornly cling to him making coherent thought difficult.

   To punctuate his point, General Hammond rose from his chair. "That's the plan straight from the President of the United States. You have my word on that, son."

   Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Adrian said what would probably be the most prophetic statement heard in that room. "All right. I'm in." As with the conference yesterday, Adrian left abruptly before anyone could say a word.

   General Hammond could almost feel the Guest's desire to chase Adrian down and find out the cause of his sudden change of heart. At his nod, the cloaked figure rose and departed after Adrian Cobretti in impossibly fluid motions for one so shrouded. The general continued the meeting using stock photos of the individual's true identity until a more formal introduction could be made.

   Adrian heard the booted footfalls seconds before the cloaked figure caught up to him from behind. Adrian stopped and waited for the person to catch up. The figure rounded the corner seconds later and stopped, seeing Adrian waiting ten feet away.

   "Tell me of your nightmare, Adrian Cobretti," the shroud asked. Another might have made it a demand, but the soft feminine, almost motherly voice made it sound anything but.

   Adrian hesitated. _Who is this person that I would talk to so readily when I don't even know what they look like? _"I see images of cities in ruins. The earth destroyed by Horde armies, its people enslaved. I see other planets that have met a similar fate. A beautiful, blonde-haired woman bent under the strain of torture and imprisonment. A once powerful blonde-haired man who has lost his way. I see a forbidding-looking castle with a skull built into the front face; the entrance a kind of jaw bridge. And images of a beautiful woman old in mind and spirit, yet young in body dressed like a…a…bird, or-"

   "Falcon?"

   "How did you know that? Are you telepathic?"  Adrian asked, suspicious.

   "Among other things. Do your dreams revolve around any one thing?"

   "Yes. The Bird-woman. I don't know why, but I feel as though I must seek her out." Adrian crossed his arms tightly at his chest. "I can't explain it. Nor do I even know her name."

   The hood nodded. "Then your search is over, Adrian Cobretti."

   Shapely hands emerged from the cloak sheathed in blue and edged with oversized feathers colored red on both sides except the outer edge feathers on the backside; just like in the dream. Those slender hands scooped the cloak and hood back over the shoulders in one smooth motion before falling beside firm, yet shapely thighs the upper half of which were covered by a white feather-like skirt pointed front, and presumably back, and angling gently up to the hips. The blue from the sleeves crossed the top of the outfit around the collar and plunged to a point at the end of the sternum. White filled in the rest rising up to mark the breasts. And black 'V' shapes passed for what may be discolored feather strewn sparing from the lower ribs to skirt. The most startling feature was not the beautifully, almost lovingly, sculpted features, but the falcon-like headdress framing those features. It was impossible to tell whether or not it was a part of her or removable.

   "And my name is Sorceress."


	3. Ch 02

TWO 

  Cheyenne Mountain, United States, Earth

  21 March 2017

   The remainder of the previous day was filled with meetings, briefings, and general discussion. If Adrian felt any shock over seeing the woman about whom he had dreamt, he kept the emotion carefully masked. Sorceress spied his eyes wandering her direction numerous times, but darted away once caught. Most of that took place after watching the recorded sessions two years ago when Sorceress had been transported from her starship to the moon base for treatment for oxygen deprivation. She shuddered almost imperceptibly seeing herself weak as a newborn baby. Her answers barely coherent and making no sense to her benefactors until more information was discovered.

   The time was nearing one o'clock in the morning when the last of the discussions were finished. Everyone retired to the cafeteria to grab a late meal before heading off to his or her respective quarters. Sorceress made herself a light salad and some fruit. She still wasn't sure how the animal flesh would effect her system even though she had been repeatedly assured her body could handle it without trouble. So Sorceress indulged in her one unwavering vise; a large Hot Fudge Sunday.

   Though she had been awake for nearly eighteen hours, Sorceress did not feel like sleeping just yet. Since taking up residence in the Cheyenne Mountain facility, General Hammond had seen to it she received better quarters than the bare-walled, ten-foot by ten-foot sparsely furnished box she had lived in for seven months. Now, the quarters were nearly three times the size – almost as big as Hammond's – with a private bathroom, a sectioned off bedroom, and decent sized living room. Though the walls were still bare and the dresser drawers and closets practically empty of clothing, Sorceress did amass a collection of books brought in for her at General Hammond's request.

   The various works ranging from William Shakespeare to Edger Allen Poe, Anne McCaffrey to Timothy Zahn, and a little of Anne Rice, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King. All this, she felt, gave her at least a beginning to understanding her adoptive home. The different cultures and religions were especially confusing. Although this United States had its share of problems, many caused by its own desire for a world of peace and equality, Sorceress knew she was better off where she was than if she had been taken to some other country.

   Once safely inside her quarters, Sorceress slumped against the closed door. So much was happening now that the impending return of the Horde was close at hand. These people were the key to the problem of the Horde. They _had _to be. No one else had even a remote chance technologically or otherwise of standing up to Horde Prime's empire. Sorceress fretted over all this while changing in a pink nightgown like the one she used to have when she resided in Castle Grayskull. She paused in the bathroom after filling a pitcher three-quarters full with cold water to stare at her reflection. The falcon-like headdress had been so much a part of her being Sorceress scarcely remembered her natural hair or color.

   Choosing not to dwell on the mystery of why she retained the mantle of the Guardian of Grayskull while so far from the castle, she left the bathroom and walked over to the combination refrigerator/freezer for the ice to add to the water. Ice water and empty glass from a cabinet in hand, Sorceress retired to the bedroom to continue the Anne McCaffrey novel she started a week ago. Though no world even remotely like her world of Pern existed, there _were _dragons; like the wise, old Granamyr of Darksmoke Mountain.

   Sorceress filled the tall glass and placed both on coasters on the nightstand, and paused, feeling an oddly familiar presence. The hardbound book she had been reading was nowhere in sight.

   "My compliments on your nightmare. Adrian didn't take as much convincing as I had feared he would need to join us," Sorceress said to the empty room.

   A book slapped closed from behind and to Sorceress' right. "I would take credit for that any day, if it were my doing," a soft feminine voice answered. "I had a very small hand it. I did enhance the intensity, but the armor, it seems, was way ahead of me."

   Sorceress straightened and faced her uninvited visitor. "Then perhaps you can do something about my nightmares."

   "You know I can't do that," the woman replied. She reclined in the only chair in the bedroom dressed in a white silk gown that accentuated the upper torso while flaring out into an ankle-length skirt currently draped over crossed shapely legs and booted feet. Straight brown tresses framed a face that showed none of the aging Sorceress last remembered seeing long, long ago.

   "Still making unannounced appearances, I see," Sorceress replied smoothly, tucking one leg under her as she sat on the side of the bed, glass of ice water in hand.

   "And you never have a nice greeting for your dear old mentor, Kodec."

   "I would comment you are looking well, but you are as immortal as I because of the castle. So that is pointless."

   "But your earth friends value such things since they are not immortal," Kodec replied, looking down at the book in her lap. "Interesting reading. A nice diversion from the musty old things in Grayskull's library." She looked up suddenly, arching an eyebrow. "And where have your manners gone? Aren't you going to offer a drink for your guest?"

   A slight wave of Sorceress' right hand caused an identical glass filled with ice water to appear in the air close to Kodec's left hand. Kodec returned the favor in kind by magically sending the novel back to the nightstand where she'd found it.

   "The Horde fleet is almost at the edge of this solar system," Kodec said almost casually.

   "I know. The Hubble Telescope found them approaching on the same vector they used two years ago." Sorceress had found that out about six hours ago.

   Kodec decided it was time to unload more misery, as if there wasn't plenty already. "The Horde would never have broken off the attack like they did unless something had happened." When Sorceress didn't reply, Kodec continued. "Something remarkable happened on Eternia. He-man finally showed up." Sorceress perked up at that, Kodec held up a hand to forestall any comments. "It took a lot of convincing, but he joined the battle to drive King Hiss from Eternia. I told you Teela's marriage to King Hiss was just a matter of convenience to save the people from further brutality by the Snake Men. She joined He-man in the fight, and after a lengthy battle, won the day. However, a fleet of Horde ships arrived just after the battle concluded to continue the fighting. He-man and companions fended off the new invasion force. However, the fleet under Catra's command – the one that left earth – arrived when the weakened heroes gained the upper hand, and delivered a decisive defeat. He-man was captured while many of the companions retreated into hiding. And Castle Grayskull sealed itself up so tight even Granamyr would be hard-pressed to gain entry."

   Sorceress let the enormity of it all sink in before replying, "So they left because Earth was no longer a threat. For the moment, at least." 

   Kodec nodded. "But they are returning. And their technology has improved a great deal in those two years. Only the armor will stand a chance against it, however…"

   Sorceress looked up from her glass. "What?" she prodded. _How much worse could it get?_

   "The armor has not been used in a long time. Centuries, by earth time keeping. Vague rumors hinted at their being constructed of Etherium alloy. I don't know much more than that except that the durability may be diminished."

   "You're saying the first battle using the armor suits may be the last." General Hammond was not going to like that.

   Scientists discovered the molecular structure of Etherium alloy in the computer memory of her starship. The dynamics of the structure was still being researched, but these industrious and inventive humans figured out how to make more before fully understanding why the structure worked the way it did. There was just one minor detail. To unlock the full potential of the alloy, it had to be manufactured in zero gravity. The dynamics of this was a hotly contested issue. Bottom line, all the alloy made had been used in completely reverse-engineering and reconstructing her starship. If the armor had to be treated in a similar manor, Sorceress feared there would not be enough alloy or time to refurbish the armor.

   "But we must take this one step at a time." Kodec rose from the chair and walked over to the nightstand, set the glass down after emptying its contents. "First, you must escape this world, evade the approaching fleet, and get a bearing on where the armor is hidden."

   "I don't suppose you could tell me where?"

   "I do not know the exact location. All I can tell you is I have been there. I have seen the armor from a distance. It seemed intact, but there is a power in the chamber where the suits reside that would not allow a closer inspection. Even an Elder could not approach without being seriously injured or even killed. Only those to whom the armor calls out to can get close. Use that to your advantage, and the way will point to itself." With that, the ancient woman left to bedroom in a swirl of silk skirts. It took Sorceress only a moment to get off the bed and follow her into the outer room, intent on asking more questions. Only an empty room greeted her.

   _Now I know why General Hammond hates my silent entry and exits. It's just so – irritating._

  Area 51, United States, Earth

  30 April 2017

   For over a month, the Delta Force unit under the command of Colonel Markson, and five who would wear the mystic armor, trained long and hard for the unconventional war they would soon engage in. Colonel Markson's unit was not a true Delta Force unit. In actuality, the three squads were made up of army rangers, snipers, Navy Seals, and a few marines. Getting these different service backgrounds just to enter the same room much lest remain civil was a choir. Getting them to work together proved to be a near impossibility. Only the images from the Hubble Space Telescope of the approaching warships kept the peace. The rivalries and interservice bickering continued, of course, but it was markedly reduced. General Hammond left it to Colonel Markson to keep things under control while he dealt with another problem.

   Hammond finally backed Sorceress into a corner, figuratively speaking, on the issue of the sixth armor-bearer. It was either reveal who the last individual was, or have her existence broadcast to the Horde. Hammond hated using that tactic, but Sorceress could be unreasonably stubborn. Never mind the fact he never had any real intention of revealing her presence to the Horde. Sorceress doubted the general would follow through with his threat, but his boldness in making it was enough to convince her it was time for more of the truth to come to light.

   Sorceress revealed that _she_ was the sixth person. Why the suit called to her was a mystery, but one she could not ignore no matter how hard she tried. Before she became the Guardian of Castle Grayskull, she had been willing to use any means necessary to protect her village from the Horde invaders. Now she had to make that choice again. There were sentient beings willingly serving Horde Prime. She would no doubt face them in battle, but like He-man and She-Ra, Sorceress adopted the law of never taking a life. Jake Rockwell pointed out there were plenty of robots for her to use her magic against while the others performed the unfortunate necessity of destroying those beings when left with no other choice.

   And the Horde would leave them with no choice.

   Once the Guardian armor was unleashed in the universe once again, the Horde would use any and all means necessary to destroy them. They had to deal with the fact that once the line was crossed and their existence was revealed, they would be committing to a course from which there would be no turning back.

   That also meant Sorceress would have to learn some sort of self-defense fighting techniques that could save her life. Hohiro Takamora offered to train her and Adrian in several arts. A master of the bokken, kenpo, and several other martial arts, Hohiro was widely acknowledged as around the world as a master of each art. Sorceress, Adrian, and anyone else interested would learn the art of kenpo or karate. The sword training was reserved solely for Adrian. The only reason Hohiro would give for this was a premonition he had after first meeting Adrian Cobretti for the first time.

   Despite her early reluctance, Sorceress came to like the discipline involved in the art of kenpo; and she proved to be a quick study. Adrian, on the other hand found handling a boken daunting. All the grace and finesse he displayed learning kenpo disappeared when trying to learn the use of the bokken.

   The encrypted files previously unbroken from the Sorceress' starship were finally decrypted. The first thing pulled from the jumbled mass of data was design specifications of the six mystical suits of power armor. Hohiro's 'feeling' about Adrian proved correct when the specs on his armor revealed twin energy sabers called beam sabers. Through they would be lighter when wielded, Hohiro still felt he could train Adrian in their use utilizing earth techniques.

   The other suits were all powerful in their own right with specialized weaponry. Sonya Boradni's armor utilized a kind of beam spear most reminiscent of a _naginata-do_, or samurai's halberd as it's primary weapon. Brad Johnson's armor utilized twin scimitars whose blades could be energized to red-hot temperatures to carve though most armor types up to three feet thick. Jeromy Ironwood liked the scythe utilized by his armor. Adrian's primary weapon turned out to be a rifle of unbelievable destructive power. Jake Rockwell's armor sported two twin gatling cannon assemblies. The designs also showed specs for some kind of miniature missile assemble. And Sorceress' armor appeared to act as some kind of amplifier for her magical abilities.

   "In their day these suits must have been awesome," Colonel Markson commented at the briefing on the armor capabilities.

   "Weapons like those could make very powerful enemies" Hohiro replied, hands steepled in front of him. "Or make someone a very powerful ruler."

   "Exactly," General Hammond agreed. "If the Horde were to discover the existence of these, they would stop at nothing to acquire them. Or stop us from getting them."

   "These suits predate the Horde," Sorceress supplied. "It's entirely possible Horde Prime knows about them. He uses magic as I do. He may even have knowledge, however inaccurate, of what we are doing."

   "All the more reason to accelerate the preparations. Captain Majourny says the starship is ready to fly. Whatever other systems still below one hundred percent can be repaired while under way. With the Horde fleet just outside our solar system I have contacted the President with the intent of getting a 'Go' for launch." General Hammond slowly swept his gaze around the room. "We should hear something within the next few days. For now I am ordering everyone to begin departure preparations. Get all your gear checked and loaded onboard ship as quickly as possible."

   The task of loading the alien starship proved to be harder than it first appeared. While the reverse engineering worked, it hadn't solved the problem of combining the traits of a warship and troop carrier into one. Not with the design available to them. A completely new design would be needed, and the time and materials needed for the construction. And then there were the test flights, weapons tests, and on, and on, and on.

   Although listed as a Delta Force unit, Colonel Markson's command was in actuality one of the new Combined Forces units; a unit drawn from the best elements of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The Air Force had the sole responsibility for the space fleet, although presently non-existent. Procedure for loading two dropships, two APCs (armored personnel carrier), munitions, weapons, tactical gear, and tactical database analysis dictated eight to twelve hours. Captain Majourny wanted to see it they could shave an hour or so off that. If they did, they all would get at least a day off.

   They did it safely and efficiently in five.

  Sol System, Coreward Rim

  Horde Advance Fleet

  1 May 2017

   Catra prowled the corridors of the command ship like the ferule cat the mask she wore on her forehead turned her into. One might think the red outfit she wore revealing a lot of leg and arm would be appealing along with the shapely firmness of her sleek frame. One might even find the angled features pleasant. No one on this warship thought that, however, when exposed to her predatory nature. The only man humanoid onboard did not even give her attractiveness a first glance. His interest lay solely in what the unpredictable enemy on the third planet of this system was doing.

   Like Catra, Rongar hated waiting. He had more than enough firepower at hand to smite Earth's defenses. And those nuclear weapons wouldn't even penetrate their warship shields. But Horde Prime gave strict orders to hold at the solar system's rim and wait for further orders, so that's what they will do.

   "Rrrrrrooeeewwww," Catra roared from the open access hatch. "Why are we just sitting here? We have more than enough forces to take care of any resistance the humans can mount."

   Rongar sighed. "Because Horde Prime ordered it. Something isn't right about these humans, something that concerns Horde Prime. After analyzing the battles I can begin to see why."

   "They are nothing compared to the might of the Horde. They will resist, destroy some of our forces, but they could not hope to win," Catra countered. 

   "Nevertheless, we will wait a see what happens."

   The trooper manning the communications equipment turned in a chair barely big enough to support the massive bulk of the standard model. "Sir," the machine replied, red-slitted eyes flashing as it spoke. "A signal from Horde World. Horde Prime commands you contact him immediately."

   Dismissing Catra from his mind, Rongar faced the large table taking up the center of the command deck. The troopers manning the stations all around the deck continued in their assigned tasks oblivious of the holographic projector that came to life in the table's center. The image coalesced in the white globe showed only swirling purple mists. The tip of a clawed hand briefly appeared then disappeared. "Report," a gravelly voice rumbled from the speakers hidden in the table.

   "We have arrived at the Terran system on schedule. We are currently holding just beyond the rim as ordered," Rongar replied clipped and crisp.

   "Excellent. Keep a close watch on that system, commander. I have reason to believe those humans are up to something. The agent we left behind has indicated some unusual movements in personnel and material to a region in the North American continent."

   Rongar's brow furled, and he crossed his arms over his broad chest. "Any clue as to what it means?"

   "None," Horde Prime replied. "Although I would suspect they plan to mount an expedition of some sort."

   "There was no indication they have interstellar capabilities. Their shuttles are primitive as are the ships they use to travel to and from their moon." Rongar reviewed everything he had seen on the human culture. If Horde Prime was concerned, something surely must have happened. "With all do respect, My Lord, if you know or suspect something it might help our surveillance."

   "I have felt…a…stirring in magical energies. One I have not felt in a long time. Someone of considerable magical ability is in that system. Someone of considerable magical ability is in that system, someone who will likely try to leave soon. Watch for it. I cannot be more specific. Report back when you have seen what I seek."

   Rongar replied a touch nervously, "I am not sure of what I'm looking for."

   "You will know it when you see it." The image of swirling purple mists faded away before Rongar could voice his concern. 

   Lost in thought, the towering humanoid wandered over to the expansive viewing ports. "What are you hiding out there," he murmured to himself.

   Seeing she wasn't going to get any satisfaction from the fleet commander, Catra stalked off the command deck in search of hapless robots to vent her frustration on. When she was in this mood hapless robots were scarce because word spread like wildfire and no targets surfaced in her sights. Though Horde robots tended to be not to bright because of the limited programming put into them on the assembly lines, they were _not_ stupid enough to get caught in Catra's gun sights.


	4. Ch 03

THREE 

  Area 51, United States, Earth

  0800 HOURS, 3 May 2017

  General Hammond did not like surprises. Although the completion of the starship loading in five hours – three hours under the minimum – was a pleasant one he would not readily admit to, a report by the Cheyenne Mountain Space Tracking System that the Horde fleet was already on station at the edge of the solar system when it was supposed to still be several lightyears away did not brighten the general's day. After a brief consultation with the President, General Hammond was given the green light to begin the operation despite the concerns about the group being ill prepared for what lay ahead.

   General Hammond had little doubt his people will pull together once ballet was joined with the Horde. The hardest part would be in locating the six suits of power armor. They would have surprise on their side at that point. After that things would get a _lot_ harder. They would be one ship alone far from home. Their only real hope of challenging the Horde lay in raising an alliance from among the subjugated worlds. But how could they do that? Hammond shook off the dire thoughts and concentrated on the immediate problem, launching the starship and slipping past the Horde fleet.

   With the starship already prepped for launching, it took only a few hours for the ground crews to finalize the system checks. All the primary systems were complete. Several of the subsystems still required. They were nothing that would prevent a launch, however, and the crew could complete the work in-flight.

   Captain Majourny and crew awaited the arrival of Colonel Markson and the six Guardians in the immense underground hangar. They were gathered at the boarding ramp just behind the bridge. Massive six-inch thick steel doors rolled back as Colonel Markson and his unit entered the bay. The sight of the starship was old to them after all the time spent loading and prepping for the launch, but still held a few in awe. All were dressing in olive green uniforms and black web vests. Newly commissioned patches adorned both shoulders. Their uniforms were similar to that of Captain Majourny's crew save they didn't wear the web vests and their uniforms were blue. Bright patches also adorned their shoulders.

   Last to enter were the six who would utilize the Guardian armor. This was their first time seeing the starship in its entire splendor. Even the Sorceress had to pause and stare. While the design was familiar to her and she had seen many stages of the reconstruction, it still was different than she remembered. All the uniforms for the group were of identical cut, but different colors: blue for the starship crews, green for the combat units and black jumpsuits with gray under the arms and across the chest and back for the Guardians.

   "Now _that_ is a big ship," Jake replied, stating the obvious.

   Brad Johnson rubbed the patch on his right shoulder. "Thank you for stating the obvious once again, Jake. I still think they stole the idea from that Japanese series."

   What he referred to was the name for the unit as a whole: Guardian Force, G-Force for short. Adrian and Brad were both Japanime (Japanese Anime) nuts. As such, both were familiar with an old series called Battle of the Planets. The five-member team in that series was also called G-Force. General Hammond assured them the series had no bearing on the name. It was just a coincidence and should be accepted as such. Adrian and Brad remained unconvinced, but made no further comment about the matter. The patches did look nice and flashy, the intent being to give them a sense of unity and identity. Once the six suits were given names, the patches on the right shoulder would be altered to reflect this along with an accurate silhouette of the suit.

   "I thought you promised the general not to mention it again," Sonya replied.

   "In his presence, yes," Brad answered absently.

   "Well, here he comes to see us off."

   Indeed, General Hammond approached from a personnel door on the opposite side of the hangar. He, like the majority of the ground crew, wore the simple green uniform identical to Colonel Markson's unit complete with the Guardian Force patch on the left shoulder. "Ladies and gentlemen," the general began when everyone gathered close enough to hear him. "Today you embark on a journey that will hopefully reshape the face of the galaxy and change the course of history. The hopes and prayers of everyone involved in this project, and indeed the world, go with you." General Hammond met the gaze of each and every person from starship crewmember, to Combined Forces member, to each Guardian. "Good luck."

   "And may fortune favor the bold," Captain Majourny added as General Hammond moved among the crowd to shake the hand of every man and woman.

   The six Guardians were the last ones for General Hammond to shake hands with. "If I were a younger man I would have fought to go with you. I guess I'll just have to settle for hearing about it after the fact."

   "Do you really believe we'll make a difference out there?" Sonya Boradni asked.

   "If I didn't, I wouldn't have stayed with the program. Do you feel we can make a difference out there?"

   Sonya hesitated a moment before answering. "I'll know better after we find the armor, if it really does exist."

   "It does," Brad Johnson replied. His statement left little room for doubt. It was an ongoing argument between the two for the past month whether or not they were chasing a wild goose. Brad felt certain they weren't, but could not explain why he felt that way. Being a practical Russian that she is Sonya would only be convinced if and when they found the resting place of the six suits of power armor.

   "You six have the most difficult job of all. You will be turning a myth into reality. No one will believe at first. It'll be up to you to rekindle the fires of hope. Good luck." General Hammond exited the hangar with the remaining ground crew with the quiet announcement to clear the hangar for launch.

   "Well, he certainly doesn't pull any punches, does he," Jeromy commented idly.

   "He does make a valid point," Sorceress interjected. "Thousands of worlds know only fear need a hero who knows none."

   "What they are getting are six," Jake added. No one disputed that.

   A crewman trotted down the forward boarding ramp. "Captain says to get your…selves…aboard. She says you'll have plenty of opportunities to admire she ship later."

   "And I thought Colonel Markson was anxious to get on with this," Jake sighed, cracking a smile as they followed the crewman up the ramp.

  Sol System, Coreward Rim

  Horde Advance Fleet

  0815 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   General Rongar received the reports from their spies on earth as they came in. Most held little information of any real value to the advance fleet. One report, however, did catch his eye. It was a short message no more than a few sentences, but what those sentences read spoke volumes.

  **STARSHIP LAUNCH IMMINENT. STRIKE FORCE ABOARD. PURPOSE AND DESTINATION UNKNOWN.**

  So the humans had a starship after all. Their most closely guarded secret had finally been discovered. Whether or not they knew how to use it would soon be discovered. Rongar stood before the holotable as the globe formed again.

   "My Lord, news from Earth. The humans are preparing to launch a starship they had hidden for some time. What do you wish me to do about it?"

   "Track it. Once it leaves the system capture it and interrogate the crew. Discover their destination and purpose. These two I _must_ know. Do not fail me in this. Much is at stake." The globe of purple swirling mists faded, as the communication was broken.

   A restless Catra appeared on the bridge as Rongar ordered up a scout team. He explained the message from the spy that prompted the action they now took.

   "Rrrrrreeeeoooooowwwwww. Let me take command of the scout team. I am going crrrrazy with inactivity," the feral woman all but pleaded.

   Thought it went against his better judgment, Rongar reluctantly agreed. Having her stalking the corridors of another ship would at least give his robot crew a rest from hiding from her prowling. And she might come in handy when the time came to capture the human starship. Before sending the woman on her way, Rongar made is orders very explicit: Locate the human starship as it left their world. Track it from a safe distance to the rim of the solar system where the rest of the fleet would lie in wait to capture it.

  Rongar watched from the forward observation ports as Catra's small force of four destroyers broke formation and drove into the system. Their red sub-light drives burned brightly in local space, but was soon gobbled up be the eternal night of space. Events were now in motion. How they would develop even a seer could not see. Humans were unpredictable. That was their only predictable feature.

  Starship _Eternia_

  Area 51, United States, Earth

  0830 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   The bridge of the Starship _Eternia_ was a scene of controlled chaos. Conner 'Ace' McCloud sat at the forward left station; the Helm. Captain Majourny sat in the Captain's chair centered in all the chaos, the eye of the storm as it were. All stations reported in on their status to her as stations throughout the ship reported their status to the bridge officers. So far everything looked 'go' for launch.

   The actual atmospheric flight-testing was originally scheduled to begin in a couple months with space trials a year after that. They would be cutting through all that in a matter of minutes. They might even get into their first space battle before the day was out. Ace was the only one looking forward to that. He itched to put the ship through her paces and see if she could perform even half as well as it looked on paper.

   Jo-jo looked up through the transparent etherium canopy. The closed hangar doors with their network of braces and supports were only thirty meters higher than the highest part of the ship, which was centered along the spine were the retracted quad-laser gun was mounted. Soon she would watch the clear-blue sky give way to the inky star-filled night of space. A grand adventure was about to begin. While she welcomed the unknown, uncertainty tried to creep in over what might happen. All those things that were beyond your control, worry constantly and uselessly about, and tried to plan for in advance.

   Ace McCloud interrupted her wandering thoughts. "All stations show ready for launch. Combined Forces unit and Guardians settled in for launch."

  Captain Majourny touched a control on the panel stand at her left side. "Hangar Control this is the Starship _Eternia_ prepared to depart."

   A brief pause was followed by the hangar controller's voice. "_Eternia_, you are cleared to depart. Opening hangar doors."

   At the same moment, the bridge vibrated from the deep rumble as a crack of blue appeared overhead that steadily widened into clear, sunny skies. The massive doors were the same dimensions as the floor of the underground chamber so the entire hangar filled with bright light once fully open.

   "Full power available," the engineer on bridge duty reported.

   "Bring thrusters on-line," Captain Majourny ordered. "Prepare for vertical ascent."

   "Vertical ascent, aye," McCloud echoed. "Thrusters standing by."

   "Main engines ignite."

   Ace touched three switches while the captain watched a small status display on the left-hand panel. A diagram of the _Eternia_ as viewed from above was shown with the bow pointing up. The engine outlines at the bottom light up one by one. The engines were numbered same as any earth aircraft; left to right viewed from the aft facing forward. Number 1 and 3 engines were housed in the long cylinders running the length of the primary hull along with the hyper drive engines. Number 2 took up the aft quarter of the primary hull. All silhouettes were illuminated in green once powered up.

   The vibrations in the deck were reassuring. It was as if the ship was coming to life. "Inertia dampers and gravity plating," the captain ordered.

   Ace touched another switch. "Activated."

   "Phasers."

   Ace grinned. "Sorry, captain. No such thing. Yet."

   "I guess that means they haven't figured out the quantum torpedoes yet, either," Captain Majourny sighed to hide her smile. They were both 'Trekkies' and often joked about what the ship should really have in the way of armament and other systems.

   "I hear they may not get the transporters functional until 2025," Ace added sounding so serious the young ensign manning the navigation console next to him looked alarmed. "Relax, kid. We're just joking. They don't have any such things." _I have a feeling we may wish we did, _he thought.

   "Mister McCloud. Take us up to positive one hundred feet," the captain ordered, glancing over the left and right-hand status boards one last time.

   "Positive one hundred feet, aye," Ace responded all business. His hands worked the controls as if he'd been doing so every day. In fact, he had been familiarizing himself with the control systems ever since winning the helmsman's job a couple months back.

   Vertical thrusters gradually increased their output slowly lifting the great starship of the hangar floor. The silver inner piston of the four landing gear struts extended until they bottomed out and, still, the starship continued to rise. Ace eased the vessel up into the morning sun, the first time it has seen the sun since being brought down from the moon under cover of darkness two years ago. Once cleared of the hangar plus twenty feet, Ace raised the landing gear, and continued to apply vertical thrust until he reached one hundred feet.

   "One hundred feet, captain. Holding steady."

   Jo-jo couldn't help but be amazed at how smoothly the ship responded on command. The sound suppression was better than she had expected. Now that all systems were functioning, she could barely tell the engines and thrusters were in operation. Hell, if she hadn't been watching through the transparent etherium canopy, she could not have told someone they were moving. "Very well, Ace. Engage main engines. Fifty percent thrust." She turned to the navigator. "Mister Comorov, take us out of earth's gravity well into open space hiding behind the moon as much as possible." As the navigator acknowledged the order and bent to his task, Jo-jo knew hiding was probably pointless. If Horde sensors were half as good as the _Eternia_'s they would be detected as soon as they reached the upper atmosphere where the air transitioned to airless void. 

   "Course laid in, captain," Ensign Comorov replied.

   "Very well. Ace, take us up."

   "Yes, ma'am."

   General Hammond watched with hundreds of others below as the Starship _Eternia_ fired her main engines, tilted her nose up thirty degrees, and rocketed off toward space. Once more, he wished them all a silent 'Good Luck and God Speed.'

  Sol System, Outside Mars Orbit

  Horde Scout Team

  0900 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   Four ungainly vessels pained a sickening two-tone dark green hung motionless in the inky void between the orbit of the fourth planet the Humans called Mars, and the asteroid belt. From their current location in relation to the Earth's position in its orbit, the Horde ships had a clear line-of-sight with their sensors to see the Starship _Eternia_ as she burned for open space between Earth and its moon. As soon as the ship lifted from the underground hangar Horde sensors lit up from detecting the power system not native to the planet.

   Catra watched the sensor data scroll across the weapons station monitor. _This has to be what Rongar is looking for._ "Open a channel to the flagship. Inform General Rongar the Humans are launching a starship."

   The general's face appeared on the communications panel a few moments later. "Excellent, Catra. Keep that ship in sight. If they start to leave the system, guide us to an intercept point. Under no circumstances are you to attempt capturing it without support."

   "Rrrreeeeooowww. You make it sound like I can't handle one ship," Catra retorted hotly.

   "We don't know what that ship is capable of. For all we know that ship could have the firepower to take out ever ship in your force with one shot per vessel." Rongar's stern visage turned more so, if that were truly possible. "You _have_ your orders, Catra. Now carry them out." The image disappeared before Catra could reply.


	5. Ch 04

FOUR 

  Starship _Eternia_

  Sol System, Leaving Earth Space

  0930 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   The bridge crew, and the entire ship's compliment watching the nearest monitor, stared silently at the breathtaking view of the earth. Somebody joked over the intercom that they could see their house from here. The six Guardians had braved the acceleration up to orbit to come up to the bridge to watch blue sky fade to black, star-speckled night. The action had gone against Captain Majourny's orders that non-crewmembers remain where they were in case the inertia dampers experienced a problem, but she let it go. How often does one get to see sights like this, anyway?

   While the crew continued to take in the view, Captain Majourny left her seat and walked to the back of the bridge to converse with the six spectators. "This ship your brought us is incredible, Sorceress. Ace said it flies like a bird."

   Although the starship technically belonged to her, as the human concept of salvage rights went, Sorceress would not hear of claiming ownership. "I'm sure it will do everything you ask of it, and more."

   "Now that we are away from the planet, do you feel a sense of what direction to take?" Jo-jo had been concerned about this part. Would the nightmares these six experienced lessen now that they were actually on the move? Sorceress claimed to feel a slight pull, a desire to get away from earth and heard in a specific direction.

   The six conversed briefly. All of them were apparently now feeling a drive toward some distant location. Hopefully that location was where the power armor lay hidden. Finally, Sorceress pointed out the transparent etherium canopy. Ensign Comorov figured up a course and soon had it plotted according to the spatial maps stored in the computer.

   "I have it plotted, captain. However…" the ensign trailed off, uncertain.

   "Say it, ensign. What's the problem?"

   "Well, captain, the course takes up close to that Horde fleet sitting just outside the solar system."

   "How close?"

   "Um, as spatial distances go, um, spitting distance. They could attack or intercept us easily."

   The science officer cleared his throat. "Captain? I've had intermittent contact with – something – out there. I place it roughly in the Mars orbit. Could be a vessel."

   "Can you pin it down any better than that, Mister Anderson?"

   "No, Captain. If it's a Horde ship, they may have some type of shield of system that deflects our scans."

   Jo-jo nodded. "Very well. We figured they might have a ship of two spying on our system. Keep a close watch. They may try to follow us."

   "Uh, oh," Jake said warningly. "She's got that look."

   Jo-jo ignored him. "Could Horde Prime know of your existence here and now?"

   Sorceress shook her head. "No. But, like me, he is a creature of magic. He can probably sense a being of incredible power is in the galaxy, but in a vague almost indistinct way. The same way I sense his presence. Something has changed in the universe. Normally, the Guardian of Grayskull cannot leave the castle in human form except for extremely short periods, or without a magic crystal. Such is the nature of the mantle of the Sorceress. However, as you can see, I exist in my human form instead of that of a falcon. I also sense the untapped magic of your world. You have grown away from it as a race. And my magic has grown more powerful than it ever used to be."

   "Earth's influence, perhaps?" 

   Sorceress considered that a moment. "Possibly. I think the answer lays in Grayskull itself."

   "Well, first things first." Jo-jo interrupted. "We need to find the armor. This sensation you all feel is the only guide we have. Our immediate problem is the Horde fleet out there."

   "I would say it's a safe bet they intend to trap us. Why else have a couple scout ships in the system?" Jake replied.

   "Just because we recognize the trap doesn't mean we can avoid it," Adrian added.

   Jo-jo conversed with Colonel Markson briefly over the intercom, advised him to make his people ready just in case, and decided upon a course of action. Returning to the Captain's chair, Captain Majourny ordered, "Ace, follow Mister Comorov's course plot. Half sub-light power. We'll press on as if we don't know anything is amiss. Mister Anderson, if that vessel looks like it's following us, let me know."

   "Aye, Captain," Ensign Anderson replied without taking his eyes from the sensor displays.

   The view outside shifted abruptly. The earth spin away to the right as Ace brought the ship around on course for the edge of the solar system. A sliver of the moon appeared to the left as the main engines engaged and thrust them on their way. The moon disappeared within minutes and leaving a star-filled void the only scene to look at. No one could feel the vibrations of the mighty engines, but there was a slight hum probably from either the structural integrity system, inertia dampers, gravity plates, or all the above.

   Once clear of the moon's gravity well, and had a course plotted through the asteroid belt, Captain Majourny told Ace, "Take her up to maximum, Ace. Let's see what this thing can do." Everyone was so absorbed in his or her task, and with the Guardians returned to the Ready Room, no one saw the slight smile Jo-jo wore as the engine power increased. _Boys with toys? Hell! Girls with toys!_

  Horde Advance Fleet

  Sol System, Coreward Rim

  1100 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   The trip through the asteroids took a little longer than expected. Chunks of starship-killing rock bouncing around the belt occasionally crossed the _Eternia_'s path forcing them to slow down and detour around them. Once through, Ace throttled the engines back up to full power and, at his discretion granted by the captain, gave the control systems a workout to see how they would perform. Captain Majourny's plan was a two-fold one. One: it gave her crew a chance to shake out any bugs still in the ship. Two: they kept an eye on the horde ships in front and behind without _looking_ like they were keeping an eye on them.

   The scout ships, numbering four in all they later discovered, were initially caught off guard, but they recovered quickly. The fleet in front of them began maneuvering for intercept by the time the _Eternia_ reached the Saturn orbit. Horde ships spread themselves out in a kind of net to catch them no matter what evasive course they tried to take. That's when the communication came in.

   Someone identifying himself as General Rongar ordered the _Eternia_ to halt at the rim, and prepare to be boarded. Jo-jo scoffed at that. The blockade, however, meant business. All the ships in the fleet right down to the scout ships out-massed the _Eternia_ at least three times over. The largest were easily twelve times the _Eternia_'s volume. Sensor readings of the power output of the battleship pegged the meter. No way they could fight something like that. After a brief meeting with Colonel Markson and the Guardians, the only real option was clear.

   General Rongar was asking for a civilized meeting. Captain Majourny would agree on the condition no Horde troops attempted to enter the ship. If they did, they would me met with deadly force which could include blowing the ship up to keep it out of their hands. To their surprise, the Horde commander agreed. Jake had a bad feeling about it echoed by Colonel Markson. However, if they had any hope of getting past the fleet, meeting with its commander may be the first step.

   Ten minutes from docking with the enemy battleship, Captain Majourny addressed the crew. "This is the captain. Myself, Colonel Markson, Ensign Anderson, and a squad of soldiers will be meeting with the Horde commander within the next thirty minutes. I expect all of you to remain calm and stay alert. No one other than my party is to exit or enter the ship. If the Horde tries to take this ship by force, repel that boarding party by whatever means necessary. I hope it won't be necessary, but lets be on our toes. Carry on. Captain out."

   Next, Jo-jo addressed Ace. "Ace, if they try to take the ship, defend yourselves. If it looks like we can't make it back, blast your way out and continue the mission." She held up a hand to forestall any objection. "If it looks like you can't escape, destroy the ship. Make sure they can't find out what we know. Those are your orders, Mister McCloud. I expect you to carry them out."

   As she rose from her seat to go join Colonel Markson and his team at the boarding ramp, Lieutenant Harvey Denton, the weapons officer, replied, "Captain, we won't leave you behind."

  At the hatch, Jo-jo answered, "If we don't make it back, there won't _be_ anybody behind. Commence docking maneuvers when ready. Mister McCloud, the ship is yours." With that, she was gone.

    Ace approached the cavernous docking bay cautiously, though he had plenty of room to maneuver. Scores of robot troopers filled the bay. The big, bulky front line troops dominated the scene with squads of the more human-shaped black troopers scattered about. Ace brought the starship in on lifting thrusters and glided to the assigned landing space. Theirs was the only craft in the bay. No fighters, shuttles, or transports could be seen.

   Once settled on the deck with all systems powering down, the boarding ramp lowered and was secured by Alpha Squad. Humans and robots glared at one another across a no-mans-land of fifty meters of open deck around the starship. Captain Majourny, Colonel Markson, and Ensign Anderson proceeded to the bottom of the ramp to await the general's greeting party.

   They didn't have to wait long. An honor guard formed up to create an isle from the blast doors directly in from of the ship almost to the boarding ramp. The remaining robots formed up in flights of twenty on either side. The black robots, though not formed up, placed themselves at vantage points around the area with their weapons held a port arms.  As if on queue with the last robot getting into position, the blast doors parted with a slight mechanical hum as a party of one humanoid and three brick red-colored robots strode toward them.

   The humanoid was extremely tall, nearly six feet six inches. He wore polished gray armor exactly like that of the front line troopers. The red bat wing design on the breastplate stood out in stark contrast. Colonel Markson thought the red tint was that of blood, but it had to be a trick of the lighting. The colonel was also the tallest of the party at six feet one inches and he still had to look up at the approaching Horde commander.

   Rongar stopped five feet from the humans and appraised them coolly. Captain Majourny's first thought of this man was he was not an enemy to take lightly. Nor was he someone to take an enemy lightly. His eyes looked each member of her party over in a cold calculating manner searching out strengths and weaknesses. The side arms each wore on the hip did not go unnoticed. For their part, Alpha Squad stood at the ready with pulse rifles pointed to the deck, but could be snapped up to firing position in an instant. Not one of them broke their stance, yet each member kept a careful eye on their respective field of fire for any kind of trickery.

   Having sized up the opposition, General Rongar stepped forward to address Captain Majourny. He knew she had to be the leader of the expedition simply because she was the ranking female present. And she had the air of command about her. "Captain Majourny. A pleasure to meet you. Welcome aboard the Imperial warship _Hoscar_. It translates in your language roughly as 'Dread'."

   _Cheery name. Can't say the same about meeting you._ Like the general, Jo-jo did not extend her hand in greeting. "Thank you for your hospitality in hosting this meeting. We are not at war, general. What we do within our home system is none of your concern."

   Rongar smiled thinly. "You get right to the point. Excellent. I like that in a leader. The pompous games of, as you might say, 'beating around the bush', I find irritating and tiresome."

   "Then we can agree on one thing, at least," Jo-jo replied. She introduced Colonel Markson, Ensign Anderson, and mentioned Alpha Squad as a whole.

   "Well, captain, shall we adjourn to more pleasant surroundings?" General Rongar proposed. When Alpha Squad formed up for escort, he added, "You may leave your escorts behind. You will be safe enough here."

   Jo-jo countered with, "Would you feel safe if our roles were reversed and you were on earth?"

   _Touché'_  "Very well, but do not wonder away from the group and I expect those rifles to remain slung at _all _times. For your own safety, of course."

   Colonel Markson nodded so slightly to Sergeant Bobby White, the squad leader, that even the casual observer looking at the colonel wouldn't have seen it. Sergeant White did and nodded to his command in turn.

   "There they go," Ace replied, gazing out the canopy. "This is the part I hate. The waiting."

   No one on the bridge disagreed.

  Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

  Sol System, Coreward Rim

  1300 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   Lieutenant Rodney Santana dispatched repair crews to the various jobs left incomplete before the launch. Some of the jobs were repairs needed since launching. Ace's maneuvers found a definite lag in the inertia damping system that had to be corrected. Most of the work was internal, but several jobs required going outside. Two crews were topside opening access panels to primary power conduits while one crew had to repair a burned-out power coupling for the ventral quad lasers. All external work took place under the watchful eye of Horde Troopers. Though most had dispersed after General Rongar and his guests exited the hangar, there were still plenty around to cause trouble.

   While this was going on, the Guardians prowled the corridors. Sorceress had been on the verge of sleep when the jolts of touchdown on the hangar deck woke her. None of them knew of the approach and landing in the Horde battleship until Captain Majourny's party was well away.

   They soon discovered the ulterior motives behind not trying to get past the Horde fleet. Hohiro Takamora had been given the task of trying to penetrate the battleship's main computer and see what they could dig up. Hohiro's team assembled in the port side drop bay. Adrian, Jake, and Sorceress wandered in as the six make the final check of their equipment.

   "Gentlemen," Jake began once the trio was in earshot. Cathreine O'Rourke glanced up from her computer hacking equipment. "And ladies," Jake amended. "Looks like y'all are going on a little field trip."

   "Not now, Jake," Naomi Rider warned.

   "Now is that any way to treat a fellow ground pounder?" Jake replied looking hurt.

   "This is not the time for your frivolous banter," Hohiro said, walking up on them from behind. "I expected to see Adrian with you." He looked around, but didn't see the man anywhere.

   The pistol on his right hip suddenly leapt from the holster. Hohiro spun into the face of a devilishly grinning Adrian Cobretti. "You're slipping," Adrian replied hand the weapon back butt-first.

   "You just caught me off guard," Hohiro replied, stone-faced.

   "I thought you said that was impossible," Sorceress said, giving him a slit-eyed look.

   "We have a mission. We can practice another time."

   "We didn't come here to practice. We can to offer our help," Jake argued.

   Naomi jumped in before anyone else. "You don't have your armor yet. Let us handle this. You aren't fully trained for this sort of thing."

   "And how do you propose getting past the Horde Troopers?" Sorceress replied coolly. "Are you going to walk up and ask them to allow you access to the main computer?"

   "Of course not! If I could access their computer remotely from here, I would. But that would be discovered quickly enough and likely get us all killed," Catherine answered. "So we have to attempt direct access. We've narrowed down the location."

   Sorceress crossed her arms and repeated, "Again, I ask how you intend to get past the troopers."

   "We'll think of a way," Private Johnson retorted.

   Hohiro had had enough. "Quiet! All of you! Sorceress, do you have a suggestion as to how we might slip past the Horde troops?"

   Naomi and several others rolled their eyes, but wisely kept quiet. Sorceress ignored them. "I believe my magic can conceal you."

   "As in a spell of invisibility? Hmm. That might work. I get the feeling there is a 'but' somewhere in all this" Hohiro surmised.

   "You could use a few people watching your backs while you work," Jake answered. "The others will stay here to back us up if need be to get back."

   "You've obviously thought this out," Hohiro commented. He turned his gaze to the Sorceress. "I hadn't expected you to come along."

   "If something happens to the spell, I can alter it better at close range. I might be of help in other ways," she replied, surprising herself be continuing to got along with Jake's rather insane idea.

   "Sir, with all due respect, we can handle this," Private Johnson persisted. Noami uttered her agreement.

   "I, however, am in command of this operation. And I have seen the Sorceress' ability on several occasions." That ended the argument then and there. To the three Guardians, Hohiro ordered, "Arm yourselves. Adrian and Jake, the two of you will look after Sorceress. And keep an eye out for trouble." Sorceress blanched at the holstered pistol he handed to her.

   Reluctantly, Sorceress buckled on the gun belt and strapped the holster against her right thigh. _At least the color matches the uniform._ That thought surprised her. More and more she was thinking and even acting like a 'typical' woman. Not necessarily a bad thing. Sorceress just considered herself far from being a typical woman.

   Jake and Adrian armed themselves with pistols and a couple of the few laser rifles captured two years ago. And Adrian tucked a beam saber into his belt when no one was looking.

   The group now numbering nine went to the aft maintenance access ladder. Keeping out of sight of any observer from the hangar deck, Hohiro nodded for Sorceress to begin her spell. It had been a while since she'd done this sort of thing, and could imagine what a few must have been thinking when she shut her eyes and raised her hands. Those shapely hands wove small arcane patterns and glowed briefly as she created the spell around all nine people. When she was done a few seconds after starting, she nodded to the mission commander.

   "I don't feel any different," Naomi scoffed, keeping her voice down. "And I can still see everyone."

   "That's the point," Sorceress answered. "We can see one another and everything else. But we are now invisible to our surroundings. The hard part was weaving the spell to affect electronic eyes like those of the troopers and the surveillance cameras. We are quite invisible."

   To punctuate the point, several members of the repair crew working on the ventral quad gun power conduit made their way up the access stairs carrying their tool kits. Hohiro and Jake stepped out of the way, and the engineers passed completely oblivious to the team standing there.

   Jake whistled quietly. "They didn't see us."

   "What about noise, conversation?" Hohiro asked Sorceress.

   "We can be heard. I suggest quiet conversation only when necessary."

   The man nodded. As if anticipating this entire turn of events, the former Marine produced several foam-lined boxes containing earpieces. Sub-vocal communicators tied into the Combined Forces frequencies. Someone would be monitoring their progress and comm. Chatter throughout the operation. The other three Guardians where waiting in the command room watching for when they might be needed.

   With the comm check complete, Hohiro ordered his command to move out with the Sorceress in the center of the formation and Jake and Adrian flanking her.

  Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

  Sol System, Coreward Rim

  1330 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   Captain Majourny, Colonel Markson, and Ensign Anderson were escorted to a lavishly decorated reception room where a meal was being laid out for them. Alpha Squad waited outside while the four dined. No one was sure what to make of all this. They certainly hadn't expected to be granted a tour of the ship. Colonel Markson couldn't have hoped for better, especially when the tour took them past the entrance to the main computer memory core.

   Now that the target has identified, Hohiro could go to work. All he and the captain had to do was stall for time. The colonel checked his watch, saw the time was almost 1300 hours, and nodded to the captain. The tour had taken more time than anticipated, but it was a huge ship.

   Captain Majourny and Colonel Markson engaged General Rongar in polite, if restrained, conversation about the state of affairs in the galaxy. Rongar pointed out that the universe was a dangerous place. There were many enemies out there the Horde could protect Earth against if they willingly joined the Empire. Captain Majourny pointed out they did not make policy, which Rongar countered with the point that the policy-makers were far, far away.

   Ensign Anderson kept out of the conversation. He put his talents to use noting the technology right down to whatever had been used to create the meal, which he found surprisingly delicious. The ale, claimed to have been discovered on the opposite side of the galaxy, went down smooth and did not seem to have an alcoholic bite to it. The rest of the setting was based on Horde knowledge of earth culture. The ensign shuddered inwardly at just how much these people knew about earth.

   An aid, this one barely humanoid, entered, nodded to the Horde commander, and departed. "Excuse me," the man replied, rising from his plush chair. "There is a matter I must attend to. Please, continue your meal."

   When he has gone and they were relatively alone the real conversation began.

   "Well, they should be on their way. Unless that matter he had to attend to involves them," Colonel Markson replied, looking at his watch.

   "Oh, I don't think they have been discovered. Hohiro is too smart for that," Captain Majourny said. "And I have a feeling he has some help."

    "And how do you know that," the colonel inquired as Ensign Anderson wandered about the room looking over the wall hangings and artifacts. He produced a tiny digital camera to take pictures of anything of interest.

   "Do you really think Jake Rockwell with be content to sit around once he finds out what Hohiro is up to? If the Sorceress can use her magic to add that mission, Jake will not sit by and let her go without an escort. Adrian won't allow it either, for that matter," Jo-jo explained.

   Markson hadn't considered the Sorceress' magical abilities. "But will her magic defeat the electronic devises like cameras and the eyes of the troopers?"

   _Good question._ Ensign Anderson piped up," Um, captain, colonel, I heard a rumor the Sorceress practiced her magic on destroyed Horde troopers. Supposedly there was an experiment program going that tested her magic against technology. I'm not sure what the results were." He looked suddenly stricken for having spoken out of turn.

   Jo-jo tried to put the suddenly terrified young man at ease. "I heard those rumors as well. Though I haven't asked her directly, I think there is some truth to them. In any event, I don't think it'll be too much longer before we find out. Let's just see how much we can fine out. I'm sure he's trying to learn as much from us as we are trying to learn from him."

   "They certainly are secure in their superiority," Ensign Anderson commented.

   "Exactly, ensign," Colonel Markson agreed. "And that gives us the advantage."

   "Time for round two," Ensign Anderson said pointedly, returning to his seat.

   General Rongar had returned.


	6. Ch 05

Five 

  Main Computer Core

  Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

  1335 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   It had been as simple as walk casually, but quietly to get past the troopers. Everywhere the group went they were constant alert for signs of trouble. They also had to watch out that they didn't run into a robot along the way. The team moved with extreme caution in a 2-by-2 cover formation with Jake and Adrian eventually watching the rear. Hihiro stayed close to the Sorceress as the team progressed. Several times he inquired about the spell, but there seemed to be nothing to worry about. For now.

   Down two levels and forward nearly two hundred yards lay the main computer memory core. Access to the chamber was a ten-foot square blast door. Catherine O'Rourke took one look at the security pad to the right of the door and announced she could not bypass it with out tripping alarms. They would have to find another way in.

   Naomi pointed to a ventilation duct high on the wall to the left, but further investigation proved it was too small for any of them to crawl through. On a hunch, Jake and Adrian led the crew back about ten meters to a door that appeared to go nowhere. Nervous looks passed around. Sorceress shook her head. No one on the other side she could sense, so Jake hit the button on the right. Rifles snapped to the ready as the hatch slid aside. Nobody home. Hohiro nodded to Adrian, who led the way into what turned out to be a maze of service corridors and crawl spaces. After ten minutes of exploration they found the corridor leading straight to the memory core. This time Catherine announced she could bypass this one. The security overrides were not as heavy as one might have expected. Two minutes more and they were in.

   "Holy shit," someone hissed.

   They entered into a chamber roughly one hundred yards in diameter. The center of the chamber had the only seats available, one chair on a raised platform with a huge console with touch-sensitive controls. Though the platform, itself fifty feet in diameter, was dwarfed by the towering columns of crystal rods in a metal framework.

   Catherine set up shop on the other side of the control console pulling off access panels and examining the internal working to set up her hacking equipment. The rest of the team, save Private Road, spread out through the chamber to make sure they were alone. Private Road sat at the console, opened his equipment pack, and set to work setting up his gear for copying the information they were after.

   Adrian wandered off to one of the four-meter tall memory cores seemingly getting a closer look at the crystals. Sensing something was a little off, Sorceress followed. She got just close enough to hear him whisper, "Get out of my head!"

   "Adrian? Is something wrong?"

   Surprised momentarily, he quickly recovered. "Yeah, fine."

   "You don't look it. You have been a little preoccupied since we landed. What's wrong," she persisted.

   "Nothing, dammit. Let's just get on with this." He made to move past her, but she caught his shoulder, and with a level of strength he hadn't expected, stopped him.

   "I can feel it. Tell me," she said very quietly, yet demandingly. Hohiro and Jake noticed the pair and wandered over.

   Adrian sighed heavily. "One of your theories is there may be some piece of their essence within the armor. There may be some truth to it."

   Sorceress couldn't cover the shock crossing her face. "You sound sure of that."

   "I am. Since setting foot on this ship there has this voice in my head. I figure it has to be the one who wore the suit I'm to use. He keeps telling me to accept his knowledge and experience and to use it as it was intended."

   Hohiro's brow furled. "How's that?"

   "I'm not sure, but the one time I let my guard slip he, it, whatever it is implanted some knowledge," Adrian hissed angrily.

   Jake appeared lost, which wasn't too hard for him. "You make it sound like a bad thing. What knowledge was imparted to you?"

   Adrian pulled the beam saber from the small of his back where it was tucked into his belt. "I can now use this as well as any master. Better, even. Almost as if I had been trained for years."

   Hohiro appeared unconvinced. "Sorceress, is this possible?"

   She took a deep breath to organize her thoughts. "When I took over stewardship of Castle Grayskull I knew nothing about magic. I had no ability, affinity, or knowledge whatsoever. After being dropped into a pool of raw power by the castle, and after determining whether or not my heart was pure, the power of Grayskull was bestowed upon me. I gained the knowledge and the ability to use the magical powers I had been given presumably from the castle. So to answer your question I would have to say, yes. Yes, it is possible."

   Restrained commotion at the platform drew their attention though the tactical frequency remained quiet. "I can't advise you on this," Hohiro said quietly. "When the time comes you will have to decide whether or not to accept what appears to be a gift from across the ages. If the experience and knowledge of the original Guardians really is somehow available, then I am of the opinion that it is something to be accepted in the spirit it seems to be offered. Now, let's go see what they have done."

   Catherine's attempt to tap into the computer system was successful. However, there was a time limit. Private Road went to work as soon as his laptop computer screen lit up from the successful connection.

   "We're in," Catherine replied when the last tap was in place.

   "Roger that," Private Road replied, fingers flying. One hand on the laptop keypad, one on the control console. "We have a solid link." Alien symbols scrolled across numerous screens. On the laptop, the language was translated into English. "Okay, guys and girls. These files are encrypted. Shouldn't take me more than a few minutes. Ah, huh. I got your password right here."

   While he worked, Private Johnson took up station at the access corridor they used to enter the chamber. Twice he signaled them to stop and go silent. He closed the hatch and tensed as slender work robots passed through the corridor. When the area was clear, work resumed.

   "Got it!" Private Road nearly shouted. "Fast Freddie strikes again. I have my hand up her skirt and I am going for the gold!"

   "Just copy the goddamned files, okay?" Hohiro chastised warningly.

   The numbers continued to tumble in Hohiro's head as he willed the equipment to work just that much quicker. The longer the taps remained in place the more likely it became they would be discovered. All that went out the window when the heavy blast doors opened with a deep _whirring_ sound. Two troopers clomped through, and the doors closed behind them.

   At the sound of the opening doors, Catherine dropped down behind the console while Private Road snapped the screen down on the laptop. He dove for cover behind the console with Catherine. Everyone else scattered among the towering crystal structures of the core. The troopers marched into the open in the center of the chamber. Red eye slits in the domed heads panned back and forth looking for intruders. They conversed among themselves, eyes flashing with every word.

   "The security scan indicated tampering in the core," one trooper said.

   "I don't see anything," the second one replied.

   The first trooper walked over to the console. Up close he could clearly see the closed laptop resting out in the open. "Then what do you call this?"

   Both snapped up their laser rifles, domed heads swiveling about once more. They knew whomever left that instrument would not go far. Hohiro slithered out of the darkness, laser rifle up and ready. When the first trooper saw him, the machine squealed a warning just as a red bolt of energy exploded its dome. The second trooper had Hohiro dead to rights and was prepared to cut down the intruder, but never got off a shot. The trooper simply stood frozen in place as if all its joints had suddenly locked up. The tip of a red beam saber sprouted from between the bat wings on the chest plate. It continued to grow another fifteen inches before snapping back quicker than it had appeared. Smoke erupted from the gaping hole and from around the seam of the dome. It collapsed in a heap at the feet of Adrian Cobretti still clutching the activated beam saber.

   Hohiro nodded his thanks. "O'Rouke, Road, you're finished. Pull the plug."

   Road opened the laptop and reviewed the copying progress. "A few more seconds," he pleaded and Catherine set to work.

   "We're out of time. Disconnect. NOW!"

   Road remained frozen in place, eyes on the screen. Hohiro was about to order the kid to stop for the last time when he snapped the computer closed. "Done." He set about disconnection from Catherine's rig.

   Jake Rockwell joined Private Johnson, and together they kept an eye out for unwanted traffic. The equipment was packed away in a matter of minutes, and the team gathered at the maintenance corridor. Hohiro consulted the convenient map of the ship Private Road downloaded into each member's wrist computer. They could remain undetected in the maintenance corridors back up to the hangar deck. After that, they would have to cross fifty yards of corridor to get to the hanger, and another twenty yards to the _Eternia_. That course would also preserve the Sorceress' magical strength until it was really needed.

   Hohiro spoke quietly though the sub-vocal mic to the command center in the ship to inform them of what was happening, and what they were about to do. That done, Hohiro ordered his team to move out.

  Main Conference Room

  Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

  1350 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   General Rongar tired of the game. It was getting him nowhere. And now there appeared to be a disturbance in the main computer memory core. He underestimated this Captain Majourny. If their roles had been reversed he would likely have done the same.

   "General Rongar. Report from the memory core. Two troopers down. Signs of some kind of a tap had been installed in the control console."

   Troopers entered the conference room on the heels of the announcement. "Well, captain. It appears you humans are more resourceful than I first gave you credit. Tell me, just how did you manage to get out of the hangar?"

   Jo-jo's blood turned to ice at the announcement. Hohiro's team was still on the loose or their capture or death would have been announced. _Or would it._ "As you said, we are resourceful."

   Rongar shook his head. "No. You had help. Who is it?"

   "The same way you knew when we left earth," Jo-jo countered.

   "I beg your pardon?" their host said, visibly surprised.

   "Don't. It's unbecoming. The only way you could have known when we launched was if you had spies left behind two years ago," Captain Majourny elaborated.

   "Now," Colonel Markson said loud enough to be heard in the sub-vocal mic tucked in his left ear.

   Alpha Squad had seen the troopers coming and suspected trouble even before the announcement, which they heard courtesy of the colonel's mic. At his command, Alpha Squad burst into the room after circling in behind the troopers. At the same time, Colonel Markson, Captain Majourny, and Ensign Anderson shoved back their chairs and dropped to the deck. 10mm explosive-tipped light-armor piercing rounds exploded throughout the room. The troopers had no idea what hit them as the explosive rounds ripped them apart.

   In the oppressive quiet that followed the five-second burst of pulse rifle fire, the captain, colonel, and ensign leapt to the feet, weapons drawn. General Rongar cautiously got to his feet, careful not to make any sudden moves.

   "Well, I guess now I can say this meeting has been a blast. The meal was delicious. The champagne was excellent. Colonel, remind me to send Horde Prime a note," Jo-jo said, keeping a careful eye on the Horde general.

   A grinning Colonel Markson turned to his squad. "Good timing. Well, done sergeant."

   "When the troopers showed up I figured the whole thing had gone sour. So we circled around behind them with very little effort. After that it was just a matter of awaiting your signal," Sergeant white replied.

   A corporal poked his head in. "Company coming. Time to go."

   Jo-jo couldn't leave without one last parting shot. "You want to know who is helping us? You want to know what we are about? Stick around. You'll find out soon enough. Make sure your master knows the winds of change are blowing, and his empire is on the receiving end."

   As soon as they were gone, Rongar touched a control on his left gauntlet and began issuing orders. "Battlestations! All troopers on alert. Intruders are heading away from the memory core and conference room. Capture if possible, terminate if necessary."

   Alert klaxons sounded throughout the ship. Standard troopers and the black shock troops darted through the corridors to their assigned stations. Humanoids, and non-humans also mixed with the troops, as well as the more slender service robots. Captain Majourny's group avoided the worst of the traffic, however, they got pinned down a scant three meters from the hangar bay. Heavy laser and pulse rifle fire reverberated up and down the corridors. For every trooper downed two more took its place.

   "Ace, stand by to lift off," Jo-jo ordered her pilot.

   "Hohiro's team isn't back yet."

   "Hohiro, what's your status?" Colonel Markson called. "Hohiro respond."

   "I'm here, colonel. We're about ten meters from the hangar. Most of the activity seems directed toward you. No casualties, but the Sorceress is weakening from using her invisibility spell."

   "Alright. Here are your marching orders. Get on board that ship. Don't wait for us, and don't try any heroics. If we can't make it by the time you get aboard, Lieutenant McCloud will execute his orders," the colonel explained.

   "Ace, when Hohiro's team gets back, we'll make our push. Stand by," Jo-jo called to the hotshot pilot via a hand-held communicator. She looked to the colonel who nodded. "Get ready, Ace."

  Main Hangar Bay

  Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

  1405 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   Sorceress kept the spell going as long as she dared. It got them to within twenty yards of the aft boarding stairs when it finally gave out. By the time the troopers in the bay noticed them it was too late. Hohiro, Jake Adrian and two privates laid down covering fire while Privates O'Rourke and Road climbed the stairs. Once inside, the stairwell was closed, and the group made their way to the forward boarding ramp. Sorceress flung several energy balls at troopers trying to get close enough to affect capture. All they got for their efforts was a violent and terminal electric shock.

   _This is it. The time is at hand for you to use what I have to give._ That voice had been back for several minutes. Adrian told it repeatedly to shut up to he could concentrate on the running battle. At the ramp, Hohiro, Jake and the others dashed up the ramp. For some insane reason Adrian just stood there a few feet from safety. He let go of the empty laser rifle and pulled out the two beam sabers; he'd picked up a second one from a shock trooper a while back.

   The commotion in the hangar dropped as shock troops closed in on the lone human. Adrian reversed and activated the saber in his left hand so the blade ran back along his arm. He turned sideways, left arm forward and down, right arm with the other activated blade draw up to his right ear, blade pointing the way.

   "Adrian!" Sorceress shouted when she saw he wasn't following.

   "What the hell?" Hohiro added. "Frost, Dietrich, get on your fifty-calibers. And someone bring me two beam sabers." Both soldiers acknowledged. Dietrich and his spotter showed up at the ramp in moments while Frost and his spotter went to a topside hatch. Hohiro muttered something about mind readers when the other Guardians showed up.

   Jo-jo demanded to know what was happening. Ace kept her up to speed on events as they transpired. All that was missing was her group, which now had two casualties. The laser fire was intense. They made one attempt at a breakout destroying nearly fifteen robots on a devastating rain of pulse rifle and laser fire, but twenty-five robots quickly took their place. Only a miracle could save them, so she ordered Ace to take the _Eternia_ out and continue the mission.

   "No buts, Ace. Get Adrian aboard and get the hell out. We aren't going to make it." Jo-jo ordered.

   Hohiro, who had taken up a mirror stance at Adrian's back with his consent, cut in. "We have an idea which may allow you to get back."

   "Dammit, captain, I said no heroics," Colonel Markson shot back angrily. _Well, Jo-jo, you wanted the Guardians to get involved. I hope this is the way you wanted it._

   "Trust me, and get ready for our signal," Hohiro replied calmly.

   "And how will we know that?"

   "All hell is about to break loose. Stand by." _I hope you know what you are doing, Adrian,_ the oriental added silently.

   _Now is the time. Open yourself to me, Adrian Cobretti, _the – presence- cooed. _All that I know, all that I experienced I give to you to finish what we started long ago._ Knowledge and experience flooded Adrian's brain. This time he did nothing to stop it. Visions of events lost in antiquity floated before his eyes. Images of people, places, and things long dead and gone threatened to drown him. And rising from the chaos stood the indistinct shape of a battle suit.

   "It's begun," Sorceress whispered. The tactical frequencies had been merged so everyone could coordinate their attacks.

   "Adrian," Hohiro replied, unsure if he could hear or understand, but took the chance. "This is your show. For better or worse, you call it."

   Corporal Frost's spotter suddenly sang out, "I got a sniper off the bow. Left two degrees, up ten. Frost shifted his sights to the indicated position.

   "I got 'em. Shock trooper. Looks like he's lining up on Adrian," Frost replied. "Call it."

   Adrian came out of his near trance-like state at the spotter's call. "All right," he whispered. "On three." Multiple people including Colonel Markson acknowledged.

   Tension built as the shock troops activated their sabers in preparation. The breaking point rapidly approached as the sniper robot lined up its shot, and prepared to drop Adrian and Hohiro with one killing shot apiece. The machine carefully wrapped its hand on the trigger and gently began to squeeze the trigger.

   Adrian's senses exploded to proportions he had no time to comprehend. It was a kind of combat sense that took years of actual battle experience to develop. He started the count.

   "One…TWO…"

   All hell broke loose.

  Main Hangar Bay

  Horde Battleship _Hoscar_

  1407 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   _Stupid robots! We have conquered the known universe with them, yet they can't handle a handful of humans,_ General Rongar fumed as he stalked through the corridors toward the hangar bay. The latest message about the magic fire, and the infiltration team making back to the ship did little to improve his mood. At a balcony thirty feet above the foot, Rongar took in the situation. Two humans stood back-to-back with activated beam sabers. Shock troopers armed with sabers faced them in a three hundred degree ark.

   "What are you waiting for?" the Horde commander demanded of the troopers stationed at the balcony. "Destroy them!"

   A shock trooper took up station on the next balcony over with a laser rifle designed sniping. The machine quickly lined up the shot and gently began to squeeze the trigger. In the instant the red bolt of killing laser energy blasted from the muzzle, three things happened simultaneously. Adrian and Hohiro leapt into the midst of the nearest shock troopers and hacked up three apiece before they could react; the sniper shot slammed into the deck where Adrian had been standing a moment before and the shot from Corporal Frost blew the sniper's head into flying bits of circuits, gears and composite junk

   Adrian and Hohiro weaved through their opponents in a deadly ballet dance where one slip meant instant death. The ineptness Adrian displayed in practice sessions was gone. The entity and he were now of one mind. Shock troopers fell in ones and twos to his twin red sabers. Some managed to put up meager blocks, but it only delayed the inevitable by an instant or two. The goal of the distraction was not total destruction of the enemy, though many robots few reduced to scrap. Once a robot was incapacitated, the warriors moved on to the next one offering resistance. It was a delaying tactic to allow the captain's group to fight their way back to the ship.

   And fight they did.

   Captain Majourny and Colonel Markson could not help but pause at the sight of two warriors fighting independently, yet never straying far enough apart that each couldn't cover the other. The air humming with the sounds of spinning energy blades punctuated by the roar of a fifty-caliber rifle, pulse rifle discharges, and the odd laser blasts. As Alpha Squad blasted their way through the chaos toward the safety of the starship, injured comrades in tow, a new sound entered the battlefield.

   Sorceress trotted down the ramp, clear energy shield twenty-five inches in diameter on the left arm, energy ball ready in the right hand. She took aim at robot ten feet away to her right, drew back her arm, and shot it forward pointing as if to tell the glow where to go. _Fwoosh!_ The magical energy ball flew to the intended target, struck home, and caused a briefly lightning show that ended with the robot lying in a smoking heap. Wherever she pointed, her aim fell true. One by one she added to the robot body count along with the occasional booming report of a fifty-caliber rifle.

   The introduction of the magic attack was just what Rongar had been looking for. He _knew_ only a magic-user could have concealed the infiltration team. But the sight of the human female who trotted down the boarding ramp to lend a hand was a shock he never could have expected in his wildest dreams. _The Sorceress of Grayskull lived! So _this _is what Horde Prime felt._

   Instantly, Rongar snatched the rifle from the grasp of the nearest trooper, thumbed the power level selector switch to maximum, and lined up his sights on the feather-headed female. The maximum setting would quickly drain the power pack and damage the internal mechanisms, but he guessed he could land few hits.

   Adrian dispatched a robot trying to get in close to the Sorceress, and then turned away to deal with yet another threat. This shock trooper had some experience. It kept Adrian's defensive blocks high for a few strokes, and then came in low. Adrian had anticipated the move and blocked it with a counted taught to him by Hohiro. He brought his sabers down in an X pattern called the cross-down maneuver designed to trap the opponent's blade against the ground. What Hohiro hadn't shown him was the follow-up move. On pure reflex as what seemed to be the natural next step, Adrian snapped his right foot up between his crossed blades into the robot's chest. He released the trapped saber as the machine fell back. The Guardian didn't give the Horde machine time to recover. He closed in, finished it, and moved on.

   The other Guardians, Sonya, Jeromy, and Brad, took up station on the back side of the boarding ramp to cut down the Horde troops trying to catch them from behind. No one was close at this point in the battle when the Sorceress started taking devastating laser fire.

   Adrian blocked several laser bolts away from him, one directly back at the shooter when the first shot blasted down over his head and slammed into Sorceress' shield. The force of the impact spoiled her aim, the magic globe hitting open deck, and nearly knocked her from her feet. A second attack close on the heels of the first succeeded in knocking her down. Sorceress was now totally defensive. All the magical strength she had left was thrown into shoring up the shield. After all the energy already expended, the shield wouldn't last long under such a savage assault.

   More lethal energy bolts rained down on the helpless Guardian as Alpha Squad struggled to get to the ramp. Colonel Markson quickly scanned for the source of the laser fire and called it in to his snipers. "Dietrich! Frost! Sorceress is taking heavy fire from a balcony thirty feet up and five degrees right."

   Both soldiers obediently shifted their aim. "Hey!" Frost shouted. "Isn't that the guy you were having the chat with?"

   The colonel made another quick glance. It was him, all right. General Rongar himself. "Yeah. Put the bastard on his knees before Sorceress takes a hit."

   Too late.

   General Rongar's sustained fire finally bore fruit. The first shot to get through as the magic shield flickered burned a furrow down the side of the left thigh six inches below the hip socket. That instant agony made her concentration falter further weakening the shield enough that the next blast shattered the magical defense and slammed into the woman's left shoulder. The Horde commander grinned in anticipation watching the screaming woman writhing in agony and clutching her damaged shoulder. _You're mine now._

   Another human clad in the same black and gray uniform as the five others Rongar had seen sauntered down the ramp and straddled the Sorceress at the waist. Jake Rockwell had gone straight for the armory to retrieve 'ol painless.' As fifty-caliber shells began pummeling the balcony spoiling the Horde commander's easy kill shot, Jake added withering fire from his personal favorite; a mini-gun. Jake tracked his fire across the balcony and back. Two shock troopers stepped up into the lethal hail. Each took a hit from the fifty-caliber weapons, and then got chopped to pieces by the mini-gun.

   Alpha Squad veered around the defenders and sprinted up the lamp. Captain Majourny and Colonel Markson each hooked an arm under Sorceress' and dragged her out of harm's way. Rockwell, Frost and Dietrich turned their fire on the remaining robots attempting to assault the ship. Adrian and Hohiro backed up to the ramp as the other Guardians sprinted aboard. Adrian paused at the ramp long enough to catch the eye of General Rongar, who had regained his feet. The look passing between them lasted only a few seconds, but the exchange would have a powerful effect on their futures.

   "Everyone get aboard!" Ace commanded over the tactical net. "I'm going to raise the shields. On my mark. Three…two…one…MARK!"

   All shooting stopped at roughly the same instant the shields snapped in place. A few laser bolts made through only to bounce harmlessly off the ship's Etherium hull. Once the boarding ramp was secured, the starship lifted from the deck on anti-gravity thrusters, rotated one hundred eighty degrees, and roared off into the night. Once clear of the hangar bay, Ace pulled back on the manual guidance stick. The_ Eternia_ shot 'up' along the outer hull until it cleared the top over the battleship where Ace rolled over and pointed the nose toward deep space. _Eternia_ raced away at top speed.

   Hohiro clapped Adrian on the shoulder. His eyes held as much respect as he could muster. No words were necessary. They would explore the gift Adrian had received later. A tortured scream drew their attention.

   "Sorceress," they said in unison.

   They found her thirty feet down the main corridor ringed with bystanders. The med team Captain Majourny called for finally arrived commanding everyone to get out of the way. Jake and the others could only watch helplessly as the techs worked on the Sorceress' wounds. Or tried too, that is. Her pain was so great they couldn't keep her still. Jake, Jeromy, and Colonel Markson finally stepped in and pinned the woman to the deck so Doctor Emilio Carter could administer a morphine shot. Sorceress settled still as death almost immediately after.

   "That was fast," Colonel Markson replied, apprehensive.

   "She passed out," one of the assistants answered.

   "Let's get her to the infirmary," Doctor Carter ordered.

   As the med team carted the Sorceress away, Jo-jo turned to Jake and Adrian. "Stay with her. We'll talk later." She hurried away to bridge to see about making a clean getaway form the Horde warships.


	7. Ch 06

Six 

  Starship _Eternia_

  Deep Space

  1430 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   Captain Majourny entered the bridge as Ace and Ensign Comorov prepared for the jump to hyperspace. Jo-jo dropped into the captain's chair, ordered battle stations, and called up the sensor readings on the stationary console at the right hand. Four ships were in pursuit. From the mass readings they were likely the scout ships that shadowed them from Mars orbit. One ship appeared to be lagging behind just a bit. That was a dead giveaway where the commander of the scout team was.

   "Engine room reports ready for hyper drive activation at your discretion, captain," Ace replied, anxious to find out just what else this ship could do.

   Jo-jo glanced at the sensor scan once more. The Horde ships where starting to close the distance. "Jump."

   The star field outside the canopy blurred as the ship accelerated then disappeared as the ship transitioned into a cylinder-like corridor of shifting colors from across the spectrum. On the sensor screen, the four Horde ships followed the _Eternia _into the projected hyperspace corridor. The commander's ship still lagged behind, but they were still closing.

   "Lieutenant Denton, arm the rearward defenses. How sophisticated would you estimate their sensor technology is, Mister Denton?" Captain Majourny ordered, a plan beginning to take shape in her mind.

   "Very advanced. What did you have in mind, captain?"

   "Would they pick up an active mine in their path?"

   He didn't have to consider that for long. "Most likely. They would have plenty of warning and time to shoot it before it got within range."

   "My thoughts exactly. Prepare to drop mines in their path. Set them for proximity detonation and passive scan."

   Impressed by the tactic, the young man set to work. "Ready," he announced a minute later.

   Jo-jo waited another five seconds before ordering, "NOW! Drop four mines. Ace push her for all she's worth."

   _Eternia _began to shake as Ace punched the speed up to almost one hundred and twenty percent of maximum speed. Lieutenant Santana promptly called the bridge advising them the ship would not be able to take this kind of punishment for long. At the same time the ship accelerated, Jo-jo watched the four dots signifying the mines dropped from the rear of the ship and coasted backward toward the enemy ships.

   Captain Majourny punched the comm button. "All hands brace for impact."

   On the screen, she watched as the mines and Horde vessels met with explosive results. The first ship took two of the mines head-on. The detonations ripped open the bow enough for the force of hyperspace to finish the job. The remaining mines and wreckage slammed into the next two warships before they have any chance to evade. The last one looked to have dropped out of hyperspace, having lagged far enough behind to see things as they developed. But it also looked to Jo-jo's untrained eye like they might have gotten a piece of shockwave. The same wave that slammed into the _Eternia_ from behind moments later. The ship buffeted and bounced for a few seconds before settling down. Captain Majourny ordered Ace to throttle back when the sensors showed no further signs of pursuit.

   "Secure from battle stations. All decks begin damage check." Jo-jo leaned back in her seat and sighed. "Give it another hour, then call up the second shift. Let's give everyone a well deserved rest." She rose and headed for the hatch.

   "May I ask where you'll be, captain? Just in case?" Ace asked.

   "The infirmary seeing how badly we've been hurt."

  Starship _Eternia_

  Deep Space

  1500 HOURS, 3 May 2017

   Captain Majourny found five grim Guardians in the infirmary standing well out of the way as Doctor Carter and his staff worked. She noted Sorceress was still, almost. The woman wasn't as limp as she had been earlier when she passed out. Sorceress moaned softly, head moving a little each time. Doctor Carter turned away from the wall monitors as the captain joined the Guardians out of the way.

   "Hello, captain. Come to see how everyone is doing?" Doctor Carter inquired, gesturing to the five other occupied beds.

   Jo-jo nodded. "How are they?"

   "Nothing fatal. Two will be out of action for about a week. The others should be out by tomorrow." He returned to monitors motioning the others to join him. "This is one very interesting patient. I have read the file on her and her abilities, but actually seeing her magic work is something else."

   "How so?" Jeromy asked.

   "She must have been trying to activate a healing spell of some sort. The pain she was experiencing must have prevented her from concentrating long enough to start it, that is, until I gave her that Morphine shot," Doctor Carter explained.

   "You make it sound like a bad thing," Captain Majourny replied.

   "Well, yes and no." Emilio pointed to a monitor. The image was a live look at Sorceress' left shoulder blade. "Since the spell has been working that hole burned through her shoulder has been shrinking. The hole in the shoulder blade is nearly healed." Before anyone could ask, the doctor gestured to a nurse, who turned down the lights enough that they could all see the pale glow surrounding the moaning Sorceress. "That's how I figured out what was happening."

   "So what is down side? If she's healing, that is good thing. Da?" Sonya asked, her Russian accent still heavy in her voice.

   "Yes, that is a good thing. Unfortunately, the spell fights off any drug I administer for the pain. Until the spell has done its work, there is nothing I can do for her. It's very – frustrating." Doctor Carter helped a nurse cover Sorceress in a blanket, tucking the under her bare feet, making it snug along her sides. They hadn't tried removing the black and gray uniform once they found the healing spell in work. "The best thing right now is to just leave her be. She'll be looked after, as will the others. I'll let you know if anything develops. All of you look like you could use a little rest." The doctor looked pointedly at Adrian.

   Captain Majourny agreed. "Colonel Markson will likely schedule the debriefings to start at O eight hundred. I suggest we all grab a hot meal and a few hours sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day." Doctor Carter added he could help out in the area of relaxing long enough to sleep. He had an assortment of non-addictive drugs for just such cases.

   Adrian was the last one to follow the others out. Captain Majourny wasn't sure what she saw in his features. She finally decided on a fixture of concern, a little awe, respect, and something deeper that lasted for only and fleeting moment. He left before Jo-jo could probe deeper.

  Starship _Eternia_

  Deep Space

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  5 May 2017

   Debriefings. How people loved to hate them. This was no exception because they were being conducted over subspace radio with the head-shrinkers on Earth. Day Two started much as Day One had. The debriefers (inquisitioners as Jake called them) picked apart every action taken at least three times before they were satisfied, grudgingly, anyway. As usual, tempers flared and arguments ensued. General Hammond sometimes felt like a referee rather than the Guardian Force commander. He managed to stop most of the action before it got really out of hand, and then there was Adrian's debriefing.

   Colonel Simmons conducted the debriefing. He and a number of others in political and scientific circles had a difficult time believing the part of Adrian's report concerning the transfer of knowledge and experience of the 'entity,' as it has become known, to Adrian at a critical time when it was most needed. The politicians scoffed at the idea while the scientists debunked such a transfer as 'impossible.' At the very best, Captain Takamora's training is what saved him not some dubious force.

   Captain Majourny was sure if the Sorceress was on her feet and present at the proceedings, she could have shut them all up with her testimony. Sorceress was, at present, awake and due to be released on her own recognizance to her quarters in a few hours. All they would get from her was a written report. Though she might have felt what happened to Adrian, and could probably verify it with a telepathic scan, it probably wouldn't matter much in the long run. Colonel Simmons seemed to have it in for Adrian right from the start.

   At the conclusion of the debriefing, Adrian shocked everyone on both sides of the subspace conference. Adrian rose from his seat, looked Simmons in the eye, and said, "Colonel." When Simmons looked up from his papers, Adrian continued, "When I get back I'm gonna kill you." He left shocked silence in his wake.

   "Why you tolerate that man is beyond me," Colonel Simmons said gruffly to General Hammond. He stuffed papers haphazardly into a brown leather briefcase that had seen better days.

   "I think it best if you left my base as expediently as possible, colonel," General Hammond replied calmly.

   "You haven't heard the last of this," Simmons promised nastily.

   "I guarantee _you _haven't," Hammond shot back. His parting shot deflated the colonel as he thought about what Adrian Cobretti might do with a man like General Eugene Hammond looking the other way.

   Colonel Simmons made a hasty exit.

   Before anyone could break the silence, the conference room doors parted and a pale and sore Sorceress with her left arm in a sling stepped across the threshold. She settled into the chair at Captain Majourny's right hand, careful not to disturb the left shoulder.

   "While it's good to see you up and around, Sorceress," General Hammond replied, breaking the silence, "I thought you were still confined to the infirmary for the next several hours?"

   "I used my feminine wiles on the doctor and he gave me an early parole," Sorceress answered, completely nonchalant.

   Colonel Markson did a double take and started sifting through the data on the electronic pad in front of him while Jo-jo stared hard at the woman.

   "What are you looking for, colonel?" Hammond inquired of the man's intense look.

   "Oh, just reviewing Sorceress' injury report to see if she hit her head when she fell to the ramp after being shot." He did not look up from his search.

   "I did so you can stop searching," Sorceress supplied good-naturedly.

   "Getting shot might have had something to do with this personality change," Jo-jo observed.

   "I've been shot numerous times, never thought a single one beneficial," Markson said, finally looking up.

   Deciding the conversation needed a change of direction, Sorceress asked, "Did I miss anything?"

   General Hammond snorted. "Just the unusual interrogation-type debriefs from Colonel Simmons."

   The look that passed in Sorceress' eyes made Jo-jo shiver slightly. "That would explain Adrian's mood when I passed him in the corridor."

   A dark look crossed the colonel's face. "If I hadn't seen what I did two days ago, I would put people on Cobretti to protect him from Simmons when we return. Now I would still put people on him, but to protect Simmons from Cobretti." That's when he saw the look in Sorceress' eyes. "Don't tell me, let me guess. You have some history with Simmons as well."

   Sorceress nodded, but it was General Hammond who answered. "Colonel Simmons was the one who 'interviewed' Sorceress when she was coherent enough to answer questions two years ago."

   "I don't recall seeing him in that video footage from those interviews you showed us," Jo-jo counted. She had a photographic memory and clearly remembered not seeing the irritating Air Force officer.

   "He kept carefully out of the view while pressing hard for answers," Hammond answered.

   Colonel Markson made a couple notes on his data pad. "Right. Bodyguards for Sorceress and Cobretti upon return to protect Simmons from them."

   General Hammond opened his mouth to issue a mild rebuke, but Sorceress cut him off. "Even though I would have done anything to protect my home village from Horde invaders, which led to my becoming the next Guardian of Castle Grayskull, and have never harbored ill will against anyone, not even after the many times Skeletor held me captive, I changed that attitude after my interrogation by that man."

   "Okay, that explains your mood. What's the bad blood between Simmons and Cobretti?" Colonel Markson asked General Hammond.

   "Colonel Simmons is the one who pressed the court-marshal against Adrian after the battle at Edwards Air Force Base," General Hammond replied. "Adrian lost and was dishonorably discharged from the service."

   "Are you kidding me? He saved a lot of lives getting that ammo-laden humvee to the battle," Colonel Markson protested.

   "The captain in charge at the time didn't see it that way, and charged Adrian with cowardice in the face of the enemy. He's lucky he didn't get the death penalty. Anyway, I did all I could to protect him. Called in a few favors." It was clear the man had a soft spot for Adrian Cobretti. Had been since that first day in the auditorium. What a joy it had been for the general when Adrian turned out to be one of the chosen six to revive the Guardian armor.

   "And the hits just keep on coming," Colonel Markson sighed.

   "It doesn't get any better, I'm afraid," Hammond said. "In three days President Alexander is to appear before World President Roshenko and explain why the _Eternia _was launched. You must locate the planet and retrieve the armor before midnight on the eighth eastern standard time otherwise your mission will be recalled."

   The news wasn't entirely unexpected except for the part about the recall. The atmosphere in the conference room felt a little bit more oppressive. "Three days isn't much time. We have no idea where we're going or how far we have yet to go," Captain Majourny said grimly.

   Sorceress' thoughts already raced through possibilities. Kodec might be of help, if she could contact her. Sorceress also had an idea about using her magic to follow the calling back to its source. She did note the pull felt a little stronger. Maybe it would be enough. All Sorceress knew for sure was they still headed in the right direction.

   "I may be able to help," Sorceress replied quietly.

   "That friend of yours who wishes to remain anonymous?" General Hammond said. He didn't like being kept in the dark about her source of information. So far, the information had been legitimate so he didn't complain too much. He also knew some day soon this mysterious person would have to reveal them self.

   Sorceress nodded, but refused to say more.

   "Well, I wish I had better news for you. We received the data you retrieved from the Horde warship. Our analysts are having a field day down here. We may have better news for you in the next day or so. And I will see if I can't get an extension on the recall. Hammond out."

   "Is there anything we can do to help?" Jo-jo asked Sorceress.

   The woman shook her head. "No. My friend usually contacts me. I'm not sure how, but I have to initiate the contact this time. All I can say is to keep following your present course making adjustments as you go. The others feel the pull same as I. They can assist just as well." She rose from her seat looking a little paler than when she entered.

   "I think you should at least get a few solid hours sleep before trying to contact your friend," Jo-jo suggested politely. "You look like my last microwave dinner. Reheated twice over."

   Sorceress nodded absently and left the conference room.

   The captain and colonel exchanged concerned looks, neither needing to voice what troubled them.

  Starship _Eternia_

  Deep Space

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 68 HOURS, 6 May 2017

   After having a hot meal complete with chicken, the first meat she had eaten since arriving on Earth, Sorceress returned to her quarters, took a long hot shower to loosen tight shoulder muscles, and crawled naked into bed. The bed itself was a box containing two mattresses. She'd had one removed and filled the remaining space with soft furs created complements of her magic. Laying in them was like floating in a sea of fur. Even the pillowcases were fur. Sorceress settled in, pulled two blankets up to her chin and nodded off almost before she was comfortably settled.

   She slept far longer than she had intended to, though she was not aware of the exact time, Sorceress knew it was the early morning of 6 May. She also stood in a place of utter blackness. She tried to convince herself she was still sleeping comfortably in her quarters aboard the _Eternia_, at least until she realized she wore the costume of Grayskull's Guardian.

   "Kodec?" Sorceress called out, turning in a slow circle. "I need to speak with you." Nothing. No movement. No light. Just inky blackness. "KODEC!"

   "I'm right here. No need to shout," the Elder replied whimsically from behind Sorceress' left shoulder.

   "What is this place? Am I really here or…"

   "Your body is still safe and sound in your furs on the _Eternia_," the Elder assured her. Kodec's features turned stern. "I thought we had agreed I would contact you, not the other way around."

   "We did, but events have taken a turn for the worse. The American President has to appear before World President Roshenko to explain why he launched our mission. We have until midnight the eighth to find and retrieve the armor." Kodec looked unconvinced. Sorceress pressed harder. "We have no idea where we're going or how far to get there." Kodec still looked unconvinced. "Dammit, Kodec, we only have-"

   "Three days. Yes, I know. Three days. And you are going to talk one of them away if you don't shut up." The Elder heaved a heavy sigh. "I was in the middle of something when you called. You really should do something about this subconscious need to talk to me. I'm going to press the council for help. Don't go getting your hopes up. They are very obstinate."

   "So are you. Why they put up with you is a mystery to me," Sorceress returned automatically.

   For an instant Kodec looked as if she would withdraw her assistance in light of the insult, then burst out laughing. "If I had known all it took was to get shot up and a good blow to the head to loosen you up and rediscover your feminine side, I'd have personally arranged it long ago!"

   Sorceress relaxed. Kodec seemed to be at her best when bickering with someone. Sorceress never understood why, still didn't, but maybe now she would in time.

   "I will see what I can do," Kodec assured Sorceress, still smiling. "And this time when I have news _I _will call _you_. Clear?"

   "As mud," Sorceress answered, with a slight smile of her own. "Thank you."

   "Don't thank me yet. The Horde is undoubtedly following. Thank me after you have acquired the armor."

   Before Sorceress could say anything more, Kodec disappeared and she was lost in the vast blackness of blissful sleep.


	8. Ch 07

Seven 

  Horde Advance Fleet

  Deep Space

  Z MINUS 67 HOURS, 6 May 2017

   Catra's foolishness almost proved to be the end of her. Her ship's sensors had detected the explosions, but her crew barely had enough time to drop out of hyperspace. They caught a piece of the compression wave magnified by the hyperspace corridor as they dropped back into normal space. That glancing blow had been enough to all but cripple the ship irreparably. In the three days since tangling with the _Eternia_ all they had been able to do was stabilize life support for the few sentients like Catra onboard to survive, and repair a few thrusters to stabilize the uncontrolled tumble through space. It took General Rongar those three days to locate her sole surviving cruiser, or so he claimed.

   Since the ship could not be salvaged, the surviving crew was evacuated; self-destruct activated, and cast the crippled vessel adrift. As the fleet powered away a small nova briefly lit the night as the ship exploded. The vapor cloud quickly dissipated as the ships jumped into hyperspace in small groups.

   Captain Zarin was dispatched with six destroyers to track down the Human starship with orders to follow it. They were after something and Rongar wanted to know what it was. Only after the their plan was fully discovered was Zarin to engage the starship. General Rongar made that exceptionally clear by showing the feline alien his fate if he failed to follow orders to the letter. The sight of Catra writhing in torment on an agony table was enough to convince him.

   General Rongar took his remaining ships back to Horde World leaving only a single stealth ship to monitor the Human's solar system. As his command jumped into hyperspace Rongar re-read the message he received yesterday.

**        Dear Horde Prime,**

**            On 3 May 2017, Earth Standard Calendar, I and several members of my**

**         Crew, were hosted to a meal on board the Horde battleship _Hoscar_ under the**

**         command of General Rongar. I was impressed by your extensive knowledge of**

**         our home, its customs, and cuisine. The champagne was excellent, the meal was**

**         delicious, but your hospitality _really sucks!_**

**                                                                                                               Sincerely,     **

                                                                                                     **Jo-jo Majourny, Captain**

**                                                                                                     Starship _Eternia_**

   That infernal woman sounded like she was joking when she asked that Colonel Markson to remind her to send that letter. And here it was. Did she truly not realize the might if the Horde Empire? No. She was quite well aware of it. She just didn't seem to care, though she obviously respected the firepower that could be launched against her single starship. No matter how powerful it was, the Horde could eventually overwhelm it with shear force of numbers. No. This letter came from a starship commander who knew who and what she was dealing with, didn't care, and had nothing to lose while having everything to gain. A most dangerous combination, indeed.

  Starship _Eternia_

  Deep Space

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 61 HOURS, 6 May 2017

   Adrian no longer felt the pull from the armor destined for him to use. It appeared that after the transfer of knowledge and experience before the battle on the _Hoscar_, and one final meeting the day after the escape, the essence left this world continuing its journey to whatever awaited beyond this life. Captain Hohiro Takamora decided to find out the extent of the gift Adrian had been given.

   The drop bay was the only area of the ship meeting Hohiro's space requirement for what he had in mind. Small groups began to gather as Hohiro explored the skills Adrian gained in the transfer. Hohiro was amazed at the wealth of skills gained. Using them took some getting used to, but Adrian was adapting. The knowledge gained contained a fair amount of tactic, which Adrian already knew from lots of reading, and the rest harkened back to the days before the Horde. Nothing there that was useable at the moment.

   The crowd really started to grow when the pair squared off with beam sabers. A few worried about either getting injured, but Hohiro was a master and took the session in steps. He also made sure the weapons were powered down to a level that only deliver numbing blows. After thirty minutes of exploring technique, Hohiro decided it was time to try a mock battle. This went extremely well, much better than the training sessions on Earth.

   While Adrian had the knowledge and experience of the dead guardian whose name he didn't even know, sorting through it was something else. Many times he avoided numbing contacts by accident. He still tried to sort through the mass of information cluttering up his brain rather than heeding Hohiro's advice to left instinct take control. Hohiro managed to work Adrian into a corner from which it would take a miracle the young man to get out.

   That's when it happened.

   Backed up to the port side of a power dropship, Adrian had nowhere to go that Hohiro couldn't deliver a numbing blow that would be fatal were the sabers at full power. That left only one option. The crowd fell silent as if a switch had been thrown. The reason was Adrian suddenly changed shape into that of an Alien from the popular second movie in that sci-fi/horror series, scaled the dropship's hull, and leapt over Hohiro's lunge. The nightmare executed a backward somersault, hit the deck in a backward roll ending with the tail spiking the deck to stop suddenly and regain balance. Adrian shifted back to human form with sabers re-ignited and waiting for Hohiro to resume battle.

   It didn't. It wasn't often one could surprise a veteran like Hohiro Takamora, but Adrian Cobretti had achieved just that. He just stood there nearly thirty feet away sabers held loosely at his sides, and jaw agape. When he finally found his voice, about the same time Adrian relaxed, he said cautiously, "Do you have any idea what just happened?"

   Not entirely sure what the man was talking about, Adrian replied, "What do you mean? You backed me into a corner. I got out of it. The fight continues."

   "It's _how_ you got out of it. You really don't know what you did?"

   "No." Now Adrian was growing uncomfortable in the silence as the crowd stared at him. Some showed a little fear in their eyes.

   "We gotta talk," Hohiro said, closing down his sabers.

   Sorceress awoke from her refreshing slumber when her subconscious alerted her to a presence close at hand. Doctor Carter's blurry smile greeted her. "I know you need the rest, but a situation has developed which needs your particular perspective."

   Sorceress sat up slightly, clutching the soft furs to her chin. "Why me?"

   "It's best if you see it. I'm not sure I believe it myself, and I've seen the footage three times."

   Sensing she wasn't going to get any better answers, Sorceress politely asked the doctor to leave so she could dress. Ten minutes later, dressed in the costume of the Guardian of Castle Grayskull, Sorceress followed a somewhat surprised Doctor Carter to the briefing room. He was surprised because he had expected her to dress in the black and gray jumpsuit.

   Still not sure what to expect, and resisting the urge to use her magic to get a feel for the emotional tension on the ship, Sorceress was surprised to see Captain Majourny, Colonel Markson, Captain Takamora, and Adrian Cobretti waiting for her. She knew right away something serious was afoot.

   "Thank you for coming," Jo-jo replied. "Sorry to disturb your sleep."

   Sorceress waved off the apology. "I know you wouldn't have roused me without a good reason."

   At the colonel's gesture, Hohiro told the story of his trials. He spoke of the training session to explore the knowledge bequeathed to Adrian. Sorceress listened intently to the entire story sensing the other boot about to drop sometime soon. Her expression changed to one of shock when Hohiro got to the part about the transformation.

   "We didn't believe it, either," Colonel Markson replied, picking up a remote, pointing it at the far wall, and pressing the PLAY button. "That is, until we saw this footage shot of the entire session"

   The tape had been forwarded to the point just a few seconds before the transformation. Sorceress watched in rapt fascination as Hohiro backed Adrian up against one of the two dropships leaving no avenue of escape. Adrian, however, found one. The Guardian of Castle Grayskull jumped seeing the smooth change to inhuman shape, evasion, and return to human form all in the span of just a few seconds.

   After a long, awkward moment of silence, Sorceress finally said to Adrian, "It would appear you have a few hidden talents."

   Adrian did not know what to say. He didn't believe what happened until seeing the footage. It happened so quickly and naturally he had no idea he'd done it. All he could do was shrug helplessly.

   "Don't let it bother you. When I took over stewardship of Grayskull I emerged from the Pool of Power as Zoar the Falcon. An unnatural feeling, to be sure," Sorceress explained, trying to sooth the conflict Adrian was undoubtedly feeling inside.

   "I don't want it, " Adrian declared.

   "That's too bad, son," Colonel Markson said sternly. "It looks like you're stuck with it. For whatever reason you have this ability, it will undoubtedly come in very handy in the future."

   Adrian snarled, "As what? Your resident monster who can see in the dark? Scare the hell out of the enemy at will? Climb walls and go places the rest of you wouldn't dare to go?"

   "That's not fair, Adrian," Jo-jo put in. "We all accepted this mission. We knew there might be unknown side effects to accepting the armor."

   "And where the troops would invite me to eat with them after our battle on Rongar's ship, they now shun me as a monster," Adrian spat.

   "No, they don't. I could order them not to, but I don't need to because they don't," Hohiro replied. "We know the six of you are going to acquire abilities beyond our understanding. Beyond yours, even, but we are here to help understand and master those abilities. Our very survival will depend on it."

   "You have a destiny that goes far beyond being the jet engine mechanic always wanted to be," Sorceress replied. That statement cut through all the arguing.  "Our individual paths currently follow the same course. Much as I would rather be back at Castle Grayskull among familiar surroundings, I know my place is here. For most of us here, we chose this path. For the rest like you and me, this path was chosen for us."

   "If you had doubts, why didn't you voice them before we left?" Captain Majourny asked.

   Adrian looked her square in the eye and pointed the frozen image on the monitor. "Because they were dispelled. Until now."

  Council of Elders

  Location Unknown

  Z MINUS 54 HOURS, 6 May 2017

   Kodec Ugnor waited impatiently for the others to arrive. The arrogance of the Elders was rapidly reaching an all-time high. Kodec and a junior member by the name of Corwin stood in a pitch-black chamber where the only light was the blindingly white circle in which they stood. Neither was sure just how long they had been waiting past the time Kodec called for the meeting. Both were pretty sure it was approaching two hours by the human system of time keeping.

   Corwin looked nervous. "Do they intend to show up, or not?"

   "Patience, my friend," Kodec replied. "It's only a test."

   "Of what?"

   "Their arrogance versus our nerve."

   Over a dozen circles of light became materializing in from of the pair. It was impossible to judge the distance in the inky blackness, but Kodec guessed it at about ten meters from the semi-circle. Fourteen cones of light appeared in all. In those circles was one elder sitting cross-legged atop a fifteen foot white pillar. Of these core members, eight were male, and six female. Members like Kodec and Corwin was added later to increase their sphere of observation in the universe.

   "This is highly irregular, Kodec Ugnor. For what reason have you called this meeting?" the bald man in center of the lineup said tonelessly.

   "Thank you for coming so _promptly_, fellow Elders," Kodec replied, voice almost dripping contempt. "The matter I have called you here for is of the utmost importance."

   A female to Kodec's left responded, "There are many such matters demanding our attention."

   "This one involves the Humans and their attempt to revive the Guardian armor. While I do not know the exact location, they are approaching two solar systems where I believe their journey will end. They need a sign. Something, anything to help guide them to their destination."

   "We can not interfere. We have already done what we can in spite of your continued predilection to helping them," a male on the right pointed out.

   Corwin saw no change in Kodec's features at the pronouncement of her continued involvement. If anything, she appeared to have expected it. "They have been given a time limit to find the armor." Kodec explained.

   "We know," a male on the left, said. "They will succeed."

   "Not if they don't find the planet in time," Kodec countered angrily. Could these…people…really not see the necessity of the moment? Had they really become so blind?

   "Come now, Kodec," the balding Elder in the center, acknowledged leader of the council, chastised. "You yourself advocated for using Earth as the place to plant the seeds of rebellion. We acknowledge the humans there is likely the nexus legend speaks of that would prove the downfall of the Evil Horde. You also said they are very resourceful, resolute, and determined."

   "_They will learn, adapt; that is their greatest advantage_, you said," another Elder reminded Kodec. "With all these traits why do you still find it necessary that we help them? They near the end of their journey, and the beginning of another."

   "Their mission will be recalled if they do not locate and acquire the armor by a specific day and time, by their method of time-keeping," Kodec reminded them pointedly.

   The Elder to Kodec's far left spoke next. His deep bass voice resonated clearly throughout the area despite his soft speech. "If such and order was given by their politicians, do you really believe Captain Majourny would obey it? You vouched for her having a firm grasp of the seriousness of the situation they face. Have you changed that opinion?"

   "I have not," Kodec replied, keeping her voice neutral. "However, I find myself wondering if all of _you_ truly grasp the seriousness of the situation. You allowed Horde Prime to grow as powerful as he has. It was you who had to come up with the power swords, and then took a piece of each member put together in a sphere of magical energies to power the swords. And now even _that_ is not enough."

   "_Enough_, Kodec. We are all aware of the situation, but we do not have the resources with which to combat the Horde. Alerting Horde Prime to our continued existence will undermine what we are doing," another Elder elaborated. "That is why the revelation of the Sorceress' existence is now a dangerous quantity that must be dealt with. We feared she would not have the strength to use the armor effectively."

   The reference to the Sorceress sent a shiver down Kodec's spine. "What do you mean by that?" When no answer was forthcoming by any of the fourteen being facing her, Kodec began filling in the blanks. "You intercepted the _Eternia_while it was traveling back from the future. You added information to the ship's computer core, which you knew would entice the humans into taking action. But you suppressed all the memories of the Sorceress being here and being briefed on the current state of affairs in the galaxy deep in her mind. Why?" Kodec thought a moment, though she already knew the answer, the horror of it was almost too much to bear. "You did something to her, didn't you?" No Elder moved to contradict the near accusation. "What did you do?"

   "This meeting is over," the Elder in the center of the assembly declared. That statement alone was all the admission Kodec needed.

   The council disappeared one by one in rapid succession, save one. A relatively young man not much older in appearance to Kodec herself stayed around long enough to issue the barest of nods before disappearing.

   "That could have been better," Corwin remarked sourly.

   Kodec wasn't listening. Her thoughts raced furiously on several different points. How to get the _Eternia_ directed to the right planet before their deadline. Figuring out just how far she could push her own involvement before the Elders are forced to take action against her. And most important: finding out what they did to the Sorceress before leaving her and the _Eternia_ for the earthers to find two years ago.

   "Hey! What's this?" Corwin said suddenly. His exclamation drew Kodec out of her dark contemplation.

   "What is it?"

   Corwin picked up a simple folded piece of paper. Kodec looked on clamping down on her impatience as he slowly unfolded it. What they discovered confused them, at first. Then the realization of what they had been given finally dawned on the pair.

   The race was on.

  Starship _Eternia_

  Twin Star System

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 50 HOURS, 6 May 2017

   "Well, there it is," Ace sighed. "Looks kind of beautiful."

   What Ace referred to was the twin solar system they were currently scanning from half a light-year away. The eighth planet in the system was in fact a blazing sun like the system's primary. Its moons orbited like a miniature solar system. The effect reminded Jo-jo of earth's system, specifically the moons of Jupiter. That only increased their problem. This was obviously their destination, however, Sorceress and the others had no idea which section of the system was the target world. If the system hadn't been a twin binary, it would have been far simpler to scan the planets in that fertile belt where planets orbited in the specific distances from the sun to support life.

   With two suns, there were approximately five planets identified by their recalibrated sensors to search. With the Guardians unable to pinpoint anything more than this system, their task just got a lot harder.

   "Anything?" Captain Majourny asked Sorceress.

   She slowly shook her head, hands clamped tightly together and hidden under the feather cape. "No. I can sense the armor, but I can't communicate with it. The pull is much stronger, but I still can't pin it down to a specific planet, or moon." She didn't add her reluctance to use her magic. She tried that once. The result was being bed-ridden for up to fifteen hours.

   Jo-jo pursed her lips. There was just under fifty hours left to them. They could start a systematic scan of the planets, but that would eat up valuable time. If they guessed wrong on, say, the first two worlds, there wouldn't be enough time to scan the rest and still make the deadline. And then there was the Horde fleet she _knew_ was tracking them. Once they had their sensor array recalibrated into top working order, they discovered a ship traveling through hyperspace left a signature wake. That wake quickly dissipated, but not before it could give a directional bearing.

   "Ace, engage the sub-light engines. Take us in at half speed," Jo-jo ordered. She absently watched as McCloud and Comorov worked together to get the powerful starship pointed toward the target system.

   Sorceress had turned to leave, but a question from Jo-jo stopped her. "If you had to guess, a gut instinct, where would you search?"

   Sorceress closed her eyes and concentrated on the yearning pull of the mystical armor. She forced her way past the pain to see the solar system in her mind's eye and let her instincts direct her to the most likely place. "The moons. Start there." She left before anyone could ask further questions.

   "You heard her, gentlemen. Head for the eight planet." Captain Majourny rose from the captain's chair and headed for the lift. "You have the bridge, Ace. I'll be in my quarters if anyone needs me." She was gone before the acknowledgements were uttered.

   The door chime sounded thirty minutes after Jo-jo returned to her quarters. She reviewed a few notes before calling a couple people to her quarters. "Come."

   The door slid aside and in stepped the Sorceress followed by Doctor Carter. Sorceress once again had her hands hidden under the feathers by crossing her arms below her breasts. They waited for several moments as Jo-jo stalled looking over a few reports.

   "You wanted to see us, captain?" Doctor Carter said, knowing full well what this was going to be about.

   "I had a rather interesting conversation with Doctor Joanna Frazer. She called to see how the Sorceress was doing. At first I thought it had to do with the injuries suffered when we blasted our way off General Rongar's warship." Jo-jo paused to let that sink in before continuing. "After she told me the reason for her inquiry I find myself wondering when the two of you were going to tell me."

   "Doctor/patient confidentiality still applies," Doctor Carter replied.

   Jo-jo rose from her seat. "Not when it concerns a member of my crew." She turned her attention to Sorceress. "How long has this been going on?"

   "Since a few months after arriving on your world," Sorceress responded, unable to meet the captain's piercing stare.

   "Which explains your reluctance to use magic lately. If I understand the nature of your armor, it enhances your magical abilities. How much have you deteriorated?" When Sorceress withdrew her hands from hiding Jo-jo could clearly see they were shaking. "So the first time you use the armor could be your last. How is the pain?"

   "Manageable," Sorceress responded, hiding her hands again. The look in her eyes said otherwise.

   "Doctor Frazer came up with a treatment to slow the degeneration, and a drug for the pain. However, the more she uses her magic, the worse it gets," Doctor Carter elaborated.

   Jo-jo dreaded the answer to her next question, but it needed to be answered. "How long?"

   "The deterioration is happening regardless of whether or not magic is used. Using magic simply accelerates the process," Doctor Carter replied.

   "The result leaves me very weak and bed-ridden," Sorceress added. "There is also the pain from the damage to my nervous system."

   "That isn't what I asked, doctor," Jo-jo said evenly.

   "If the Sorceress refrains from using magic heavily as she did on the Horde warship, another year. Eighteen months at the most," Doctor Carter reluctantly answered.

   Doctor Carter opened his mouth to elaborate on how the deterioration would continue up until Sorceress finally died, but Jo-jo held up a hand. "Don't elaborate, doctor. I don't intend to find out how awful this condition will get. Can Grayskull heal you?"

   She had been giving that a lot of thought. "Possibly. I won't know until I get inside. A lot has happened, most notably that I maintain my human form outside its walls without the aid of a magic crystal. That's just one of a few questions I need answered."

   "Is the use of magic the only thing that accelerates the degeneration?"

   Sorceress nodded.

   Jo-jo sighed heavily, and returned to her seat. "Very well. I want you to refrain from using magic. Conserve your strength. Continue your training with Captain Takamora. We will proceed as if nothing is wrong for as long as we can. Agreed?"

   Both nodded their agreement. Sorceress looked relieved. "Thank you, captain," she said. She turned to leave, but stopped at the door. "Captain, there is the possibility the armor may prolong my life long enough to hopefully find the answers I seek in Castle Grayskull."

   "Yes. I was just thinking about that. But there is no sense getting your hopes up until we know for sure," Jo-jo cautioned.

   "Of course. Thank you for your time," Sorceress replied, this time, leaving the captain to her concerned thoughts.


	9. Ch 08

Eight 

  Washington D.C.

  United States, Earth

  Z MINUS 40 HOURS, 7 May 2017

   General Hammond met with President Alexander in the Oval Office of the White House. The mood was pessimistic at best. Hammond waited quietly while the president reviewed the recorded debriefs and the transmitted reports. The last report placed the _Eternia_ within a short hyperspace hop from what appeared to be the target system where they would find the Guardian Armor. The down side was there were a total of two planets roughly the size of earth and five moons ranging in size from half the size of earth to twice earth's mass to search, nor was there nearly enough time to do the job thoroughly.

   Finally, President Alexander placed the sheets of paper to one side and rubbed his eyes. "I can't hold off the meeting tomorrow, Gene. President Roshenko is demanding I appear tomorrow before the World Council to explain the launch of the _Eternia_. Level with me, Gene. Did I do the right thing authorizing the mission? Is the information we deciphered from the ship's computer and that stolen from that Horde warship really making a difference? Do they really stand a chance of succeeding?"

   Hammond could see in the man's eyes that he wasn't looking for the affirmative answers he had sought over a week ago when the mission was given the green light. The information still being deciphered from the raid on the _Hoscar_'s computer was already yielding undreamt of results. What President Alexander was really looking for was reassurance that they were doing the right thing.

   "Mister President, the information revealed so far from the Horde computer indicates we could find allies out there. This Queen Elmora of Phantos, for instance, the Horde believes she is secretly building warships and arms enough to outfit a sizeable army. Their spies, however, have been unable to confirm this due to the near savage thoroughness of her intelligence networks. All the spies have been eliminated to date." General Hammond paused to order his thoughts before continuing. "There are the cities of Arcadia and Avion on the planet Eternia, as well as a race of warrior women calling themselves the Val-kirie to consider."

   "Okay, so we might find a few allies. How does that help us? The Horde Empire is _huge_. Their power is great. How can we possibly stand against them?"

   "Once the armor is revived, _that_, Mister President, becomes the prime target for the Horde. The Guardian Force can keep them at bay, establish ties with potential allies, and give us time to pull them together. If Queen Elmora in indeed building an army on the technological side, then it should be far simpler to get allies on board to train to use those weapons of war."

   "Nothing is ever as simple as it seems," President Alexander cautioned. "And as we are relative newcomers to the kinds of space travel these races have enjoyed, likely since the times when humans here on earth were perfecting the mechanical clock and carrying steel crossbows into battle, we may be required to prove we have something to offer them."

   "Our technology is, by their standards, inferior," General Hammond agreed, "but I still think we can find a common ground with them."

   President Alexander nodded his agreement. He swiveled his chair around so he could gaze out the Oval Office windows. What they needed was time. Time to touch base with those potential allies. Time to prove they had something to offer an alliance. And time to keep the politicians in the World Government from jumping into bed with the enemy. That badly needed time could only come from one source - the Guardian Force.

   "Might as well paint a Bull's Eye on the ship's hull," President Alexander mused. "I need to work on my presentation for tomorrow, Gene. Please, keep me posted on their progress. They _must_ find that armor."

   "Will do, Mister President." General Hammond found his own way out. On the trip back to the airport and his jet waiting to return him to Nellis Air Force base, he mulled over the latest report from Captain Majourny. For ten hours they slowly crept up on the star system with now sign as to which planet or moon they needed to go to. Sorceress had suggested the moons, and Jo-jo took that at face value. Hopefully, Jo-jo's instinct that some kind of homing beacon will activate when they got close enough. Only time would tell.

   Only time would tell and time was rapidly running out.

  Unknown Planet

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 38 HOURS, 7 May 2017

   Corwin stared speechless at the sight before him. Twenty yards away in an immense pool of blinding white light on a large raised rectangular platform stood the six suits of power armor. No more than indistinct black shadows because of the light, the mere presence of the suits and the power radiating from them still awed the occasional onlooker. "They're incredible," the numb Elder hissed.

   Kodec simply nodded. She, too, felt the power radiating from the suits. She also sensed a kind of presence in the massive chamber. Five distinct entities made themselves known to her. The sixth was nowhere to be found. Passed beyond to whatever awaited when a being left this reality, Kodec suspected.

   The pair stood at the limit which they could safely approach the platform. Only those who would claim and use the armor could go further. Anyone else would hit a magical barrier and flung back with a force proportional to the approach speed, as Kodec discovered upon her first encounter. She walked unknowingly up to the platform at a natural stride, hit the barrier, and was flung clear back to the stone way thirty feet behind them. She still vividly remembered that embarrassing day. Only her magic saved her from serious injury. Twice, now, Kodec had to pull Corwin back from trying to get closer. She did not want him to suffer as she had.

   "Are they close?" Corwin asked. They knew the _Eternia_ was closing in on the solar system at roughly half the speed of light, but he couldn't get a feel of the ship and crew from this distance.

   Kodec, more experienced at such things, found the approaching starship in moments. "Relatively speaking, yes. I sense they still do not know where they should be looking. Understandable, considering the unusual amount of habitable planets in this system, I guess that's why it had been chosen to hide the armor."

   Despite the white light glaring from above, the pair could see a pale yellow glow start to surround the six suits. The glow grew steadily brighter as the power output rose as well.

   "Something's happening," Corwin said unnecessarily.

   "Yes," Kodec replied. She stretched her awareness out to the approaching starship.

   _Eternia_ was almost at the limit of the solar system. She tracked it while observing what the armor was doing. The power output continued to rise while the glow increased. The moment the starship _Eternia_ crossed into the system, all six suits poured their power into a single energy beam and blasted it out into space.

   Corwin and Kodec exchanged confused looks. "A homing beacon?" Corwin theorized.

   Kodec nodded. "With the power the suits are using _Eternia_ will be able to track it right to this moon."

   "If the _Eternia_ can track it, so can the Horde," Corwin pointed out.

   "Yes. Time to prepare. It'll be close, but they may just make their deadline."

  Starship _Eternia_

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 37 HOURS, 7 May 2017

   "CAPTAIN! We're passing through an energy wave of some kind!" Ensign Anderson nearly shouted.

   "Calm down," Captain Majourny rebuked mildly. "What kind of energy wave?"

   Anderson manipulated his sensor controls a little awkwardly. "Nothing threatening to the ship. It's dropping in intensity a little. Looks like –"

   Jo-jo swiveled her chair to face the young man. "Like what?"

   The man shook himself and answered, "Captain, it looks like a homing beacon."

   "What's the source?"

   "The third habitable moon of the gas giant."

   Lieutenant Denton spoke up. "Captain, if the beacon was activated because of our proximity to our destination, you can be sure any Horde ships following our hyperspace wake will pick it up."

   "Agreed. Ace, park us in orbit as quickly as you can." Jo-jo punched the comm button on the right-hand panel. "Bridge to Colonel Markson."

   "Markson, go ahead," he replied a moment later.

   "Colonel, we're receiving a homing beacon. It's coming from the third moon of the gas giant. Get your people ready to drop. We're going in as quickly as possible," Jo-jo ordered. "Combat brief in six hours."

   Markson acknowledged his marching orders.

   The drop bay and armory became a beehive of activity as the squads invaded them in force to prepare their equipment. Huge two-legged power loaders were used to move containers and ordinance about. As several people worked to load power bombs and missiles into the launch racks of the dropships, the pilots linked portable computer's to the _Eternia_'s main computer. As the ship's crew went about mapping the target planet no bigger then Earth's moon, that information was copied into the dropship computers for navigation purposes.

   Several members from each squad handled the weapons the squads would carry into action. Meticulous and thorough, the group handled every weapon, ammo pack, and explosive charge with care looking for anything out of the ordinary. As they worked, more worked to prepare the massive wheeled carriers the squads would ride into battle with.

   While all this went on, six Guardians wandered around the bays staying out of the way as much as possible. They had been trained in the use of various weapons back on earth. Weapons to see them through to taking possession of the power armor. However, since they fell outside the chain of command, this left them with nothing to do to help in getting ready. The best thing was to just stay out of the way and let the Marines, Army Rangers and regulars, and Navy Seals get to the job of preparing for war.

   Sorceress spent most of her time locked away in her quarters trying to get a grip on her deterioration. It was growing increasingly harder to hide the nerve damage as her hands still shook noticeably. Now that the end of this journey and the beginning of another was at hand, Sorceress experienced a brief stab of fear over the changes her life has thus far experienced. A new home with new friends and, it would seem, a new mission. But would she live long enough to see it? And what else did Kodec know or suspect that she wasn't telling? If Sorceress survived her first battle in the armor, she'd have to remember to interrogate the woman.

   "My, but you don't look very good. You've been in battles before. Don't tell me you're losing your nerve before it even begins," Kodec replied from a darkened corner.

   _Speaking of the Devil's apprentice…_"Go away," Sorceress snapped.

   Kodec instantly sensed the change in her friend. Something was definitely not right here. "Ouch! Struck a nerve, have I?" When Sorceress refused to respond, Kodec continued, "I have a suspicion the Elders did something to you. They didn't admit to it, but I have my suspicions."

   Kodec rambled on about this and that from the meeting she had called, but Sorceress scarcely listened. At a brief pause as Kodec caught her breath, Sorceress whispered, "I'm dying."

   It was as if the room suddenly plunged into a vacuum. Kodec just stared at the woman sitting on the couch. "What did you say?"

   Sorceress finally looked up. "I'm dying. The use of magic is slowly destroying my nervous system." She displayed her twitching hands.

   Kodec dropped to her knees in a flurry of silken skirts and placed a hand against her friend's forehead. It didn't take her long to confirm it. More than that, the woman's condition had a strangely familiar feel to it. "Those bastards!" she hissed. Then another thought struck her. "We feel she doesn't have the strength to use the armor as it was intended."

   "What?" Sorceress asked, more confused than her friend appeared to be.

   "Something I didn't think of until now." Kodec rose from her crouch. "They knew. I'm not sure how, but they knew."

   Sorceress shook her head. "You're not making any sense. No one knew about the armor until a few months ago when it started calling out to certain people."

   Kodec shook her head. "You were sent to Earth two years before so they _shouldn't_ have known. _But they did!_"

   "How?"

   "I don't know. There is still much about this armor thing and the power globe left in Grayskull I still don't understand. Corwin and I are trying to discover the relation without arousing suspicion, but it's difficult, at best." Kodec snorted. "Hell, they even know I'm assisting you."

   "But you expected that. Who's Corwin?"

   "Hmm? Oh, a friend. Young Elder. Nice guy. You'd like him," Kodec responded absently. A few pieces of the puzzle were slipping into place for her. But there were still to many pieces missing. "Look! I'm not about to let anything happen to you."

   "I'm dying. How much worse can things get?" Sorceress snapped angrily. She didn't know if the anger was directed more at herself or someone else. It sure wasn't directed at Kodec. "You aren't a goddess. Even you can't stop this – disease- or whatever it is. Everything dies in time."

   "No, I am not a goddess, except in my stunning beauty, but I damn-well _will_ keep you alive. It isn't your time, yet." Kodec's tone left no room for argument on any point other than her stunning beauty. "Just worry about acquiring the armor. After that, go to Eternia. Castle Grayskull may hold the answers you seek. As well as a cure."

   Annoyingly, Kodec disappeared when the discussion was at an end, leaving the brooding Sorceress to her dark and dreary thoughts.


	10. Ch 09

Nine 

  Starship _Eternia_

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 28 HOURS, 7 May 2017

   It took the better part of the day to get to the habitable moon, park into a stable orbit, and begin mapping the surface. Finding the immense structure the homing beacon emanated from took close to four hours. Although once found, Ace found it hard to believe they couldn't locate it to begin with. That may have had something to due with centuries of growth on and around the structure. Jo-jo marveled at the visible construction. It reminded her of the temples discovered in Mexico. Sensors showed the entire structure was approximately _twelve times_ the size or the largest pyramid in Egypt, and less than a quarter of that poked above the trees.

   Ensign Comorov had a drop corridor plotted and ready as Colonel Markson's command made final preparations for drop. All stations were on alert and preparing for the Horde ships they knew were almost certainly following. They got lucky dropping those mines in the hyperspace corridor. This would be a slugging match. Surprise could be made to work in their favor, but over if they got the Combined Forces unit away and the starship hidden before the enemy arrived.

   A beacon was dropped into geo-synchronous orbit over the ancient structure. That would be the communications relay between the ship and Markson's team. After dropping the beacon, Ace maneuvered the ship into an orbital attitude for the release of the dropships.

   "Time to drop?" Jo-jo queried her Weapons Officer.

   Lieutenant Denton touched a control on his board. "Thirty-five minutes."

   Jo-jo stared out the transparent canopy at the alien moon spinning sedately below. She could see the numbers falling in her head, and prayed they would get the mission launched and then hidden before company arrived.

   Down in the launch bay, atmospheric turbines cranked up. The pilots' weapons officers ran through their checklists using electrical power from the running engines. Quad support struts lifted the dropships high enough to allow the payload bay doors to open. The doors swung downward and retracted up into the sides of the bay as twin sets of magnetic clamps lowered and spread apart.

   The assembled Guardians still marveled at the massive armored carriers designed for a heavy drop like this. Two carriers rolled out of the vehicle bay directly behind the idling dropships. The carriers rolled along on four massive solid rubber tires. A twin barreled plasma cannon was mounted on a turret at the back. Not only could it traverse in a three hundred and sixty degree arch, the twin barrels could elevate to an angle of nearly thirty-five degrees. The driver sat on the left, same as an automobile, and a powerful twin mini-gun turret was fitting in the right side. The passenger compartment was set up to allow a command and control console for direction of the squads in the front quarter, the bench seats for two squads. Weapons were mounted at each position so a trooper to move quickly without fumbling for his or her weapon from a common storage rack. The overhead cage assemblies were for ammo boxes, medical kits, and various other supplies. The rear area ended in a ramp that was the primary deployment point, though soldiers not armed with bulky rifles or mini-guns could debark through the side stair hatches set a few feet back from the driver's compartment one on each side. The vehicle had the vague overall appearance of the machines from the movie _Damnation Alley_, which was probably the basis for the carrier, but this one was a lot more functional, and could cruise easily at 65 mph and handled like a sport utility vehicle.

  It was also armored. The hull was a nearly four inch thick composite alloy capable of stopping all small arms fire and most forms of rocket-propelled grenades. To test that theory, Army took a prototype out to a firing range and took shots at it with an M-1 Abrams tank. The carrier stopped many of the rounds until impacts stacked up on the same spot. The first actual penetration occurred when _four_ hyper-velocity rounds struck the same impact point. Punched full of holes in this fashion, and being hit by one hundred and fifty-seven rounds, the Army figured while it was durable it was too badly damaged to continue functioning. They were utterly stupefied to see the engine fire up and the vehicle drive away, albeit with a grinding _clanking_ noise coming from the drive train.

   Both the Army and Marine Corps bought hundreds of the machines.

That durability coupled with the firepower of the cannons and mini-guns, and speed, made it an ideal assault carrier for the Guardian force. The shear firepower alone of the dropships made them the ideal vessel to get the carriers to the battle zone, and provide air support once on station.

   In the armory, two privates worked diligently at loading pulse rifles, laser rifles, and assorted side arms and special personal weapons. Privates Dietrich and Frost personally examined their fifty-caliber rifles. Though they were not using the standard sniper weapons, they would not allow anyone but each other to examine their weapons. Battle armor lay stored away in personnel lockers waiting for their owners to don them. All had been checked thoroughly for any defect, which could endanger the wearer in the heat of battle.

   Thirty minutes to drop, the two platoons filed into the armory and began donning their battle armor. As usual, the inter-service rivalries floated to the surface as the troops readied themselves for the coming battle. The ritual was nothing more than a diversion to avoid thinking about things that had yet to happen.

   "All right, people," Staff Sergeant Apone, said. "The Air-babies got us here. Now it's our turn. This is what we trained for. We come here. We are going to conquer. And we are going to get some. Is that understood people?" Affirmatives drifted to him from all parts of the room. "That's right. We are going to _get some_. ARE YOU MEAN?"

   "YES!"

   "ARE YOU MEAN?"

   "YES!"

   "WHAT ARE YOU?"

   "GUARDIAN FORCE!"

   "WHAT ARE YOU?"

   "GUARDIAN FORCE!"

   "Get on the ready line people!" Apone shouted. "GET ON THE READY LINE!"

   Privates Johnson and Road handed out weapons as people sprinted past the sergeant into the drop bay. The platoons split up as they hustled to the side bulkheads where they lined up facing the APCs carefully positioned below the idling dropships.

   "Aaaaahhhhhh. Absolutely bad-asses!" Apone positioned himself at the aft ramp of the APC on the starship's starboard side. "Let's pack 'em in! GET IN THERE!"

   Two platoons filed into the carriers taking up their assigned seats from back to front. Captain Takamora took command of dropship number one with Colonel Markson riding shotgun, and Captain Adrian Vasquez took command of number two. Sonya, Brad, and Jeromy entered APC two via one of the forward boarding stair ramps as Adrian, Jake, and Sorceress entered number one. The arrangement ensured that should something go wrong, three would survive to get to the armor.

   As the platoons settled into combat seating, the magnetic clamps swung into to lock onto the metal wheel hubs and lift the carriers into the belly of the dropships. Once nestled into place, the bay doors lowered and closed around them. The quad landing struts retracted and the drop bay doors beneath the ships opened. Magnetic lifting arms lowered the dropships into them where metal platforms took the tremendous loads of the assault ships with ease.

   Several people at the back groaned as the carrier shook unexpectedly. Sorceress hid her nervousness well. No one had ever done this before. Jake and Adrian exchanged knowing looks when Sorceress wasn't looking. Their concern wasn't for themselves as much as it was for her. The rowdiness among the troops grew as the anxiety over their first combat drop grew proportionally to the imminent time to drop.

   "Confirm cross lock and drop station secured," Pilot Alexis Feril called over the tactical net.

   "Confirmed," Hohiro replied, "all drop stations secured."

   "Markson to bridge. Bad Karma One and Two requesting permission to drop," Colonel Markson said.

   Captain Majourny checked her status displays. "Time to drop window?"

   Ace checked his boards. "Coming up on thirty seconds. Flight synchronized with dropships."

   "Permission granted," Jo-jo answered. "Happy hunting."

   "Don't worry, captain. We'll save some of the action for you," Markson grinned. "Just keep them off us long enough to complete our mission."

   "No promises."

   With fifteen seconds remaining, the drop bay doors opened. Puffy white clouds and bright light flooded the bays and the dropship cockpits. "Standby, ten seconds," Alexis advised. She and her weapons officer checked their instruments one last time. All indicators were green. Flexing her right hand, she gripped the flight stick on the right arm and announced, "Standby release sequencer on my mark. 5…4…"

    Unable to resist the irony of their present situation and that of a popular movie they watched a month ago, Private Bobby White proclaimed, "We're on the express elevator to Hell. GOIN' DOWN!"

   "2…1…MARK!"

   Bobby hollered gleefully as if he were riding a roller coaster as the platforms dropped releasing the dropships into freefall.

   Eternia continued in its sedate orbit while the pair of dropships screamed into the upper atmosphere on blazing space engines. Ceramic composite hulls protected the ships from the extreme heat of re-entry, but the ride was far from smooth. Once low enough in the atmosphere, the air-breathing engines fired up to take over as primary thrusters and the space engines went to standby. Alexis announced they were in the pipe and on course. That was followed a minute later by another announcement of rough air ahead. While the flight crews kept busy staying on course for the target area located in the tail of a departing storm system, the passengers could do nothing but weather the bumping, jostling, and stomach-churning negative-G bouncing. No one said much because they were busy trying to keep their stomachs in place. All except Jake and Adrian who annoyingly slept the ride away.

   Five minutes into the flight, the ride smoothed out as they drew closer to the target area. Alexis and her counterpart in the second dropship activated their weapons pods. In response to flipping a few switches, twin pods on the sides of the ships began to move. The forward pods slid upward while the rear pods slid down. Once they reached their full traverse, ten-foot support struts smoothly slipped out horizontally away from the sides where they rotated further away to a rough forty-five degree angle. The effect formed an X-pattern when viewed from the front or rear. Addition panels rotated open in the forward section of the fuselage where the bomb racks were located.

   Apone, Colonel Markson, and Captain Takamora examined a bank of monitors displaying the vital signs of every trooper and the view from their helmet cameras immediately below it.

   "Frost, check your camera. There appears to be a malfunction," Hohiro said over the tac net. The ebony-skinned man promptly slammed his helmet – the camera – against the bulkhead. The static on the monitor cleared up in response. "Good." He nodded to Apone.

   "All right, people. Gear up. Two minutes. Get on it!" Apone commanded. "Somebody wake up Rockwell and Cobretti," he added.

   Restraining cushions were unlatched and pushed upward. Frost retrieved his fifty-caliber rifle from the weapons rack at the rear along with Privates Vasquez and Blake unlocked powerful plasma rifles from their mounts and positioned themselves near the ramp. Though there was not a lot of space to move about, the soldiers did it as if they had been doing so in their sleep.

   Adrian and Jake joined Sorceress at the bank of monitors. She, the colonel, and captain watched an external camera intently.

   "Good morning, gentlemen," Colonel Markson replied without looking. He didn't dare show them his slight smile. "Glad you two could join us."

   Sorceress, however, showed her bemused look. "Enjoy your nap?"

   Adrian nodded. "Yes. Much."

   Jake added, "Very refreshing."

   The scene on the monitor drew their attention. The storm still had a grip on the area in the form of a steady pouring rain. Not too uncommon considering the area the massive pyramid-like structure rested in was close enough to the equator to make rain showers an everyday occurrence. A slate-gray shade slowly materialized in the misting rain. The top thirty feet of the pyramid loomed like an indistinct ghost. Ancient stepped gray stonework slowly materialized in the raining gloom.

   The screen below the live camera image displayed sensor readings of the structure. Despite the powerful energy wave continuing to beam into space, there were no detectable power sources. No noticeable defenses, and nothing living within twenty meters of the pyramid base. As the dropship continued to orbit, a clearing became visible around the base. Approximately twenty meters wide, it was a no-mans-land were nothing could creep up without being seen.

   Colonel Markson thought he'd seen a covered path leading up to the structure, but the trees and undergrowth made it impossible to be sure. Confirmation came from the other dropship when they discovered the other end ten kilometers to the northwest. They orbited over a twenty square-mile field that would be the likely battlefield when their Horde pursuers finally arrived and located them. Again, the only detectable forms of life where those native to the planet. And none of it went closer than around thirty meters to the pyramid.

   "Makes me wonder what they know that we don't," Hohiro commented, as the colonel gave to order to drop in the field. "Feril, Joackson; immediate dust off when clear, and stay on station." The dropship pilots confirmed the order as they lined up their approach vector.

   Quad landing gear lowered and locked into position and the ships circled to line their cargos up with the covered path leading to the pyramid. Bay panels flipped open and slid smoothly up the interior sides of the bay. Magnetic clamps extended as the ships flared out for the final descent. Quad landing struts and solid rubber touched down with barely a jolt on the rain-soaked plain. Maglocks released the moment the weight settled, and the APCs roared away.

  "Down and clear," Feril responded over the tac net. Then she and Jackson roared off into the raining gloom to keep and weary eye out from above.

   Powerful lights snapped on as the carriers aimed for the natural corridor in the tree line. The corridor turned out to be only wide enough for single-file travel. Bad Karma One took the lead with all sensor systems searching the gloom for any signs of a hostile presence.

   "All right," Apone snapped. "I want a _clean_ dispersal this time. Ten seconds. Look sharp!"

   The armored carriers burst forth from the forest, and ground to a halt fifteen meters from the pyramid base. Aft boarding ramps dropped and armored soldiers piled out rounding the vehicles to the left and right sides by squads. They advanced on the silent stone structure in rapid cover formation. Once they reached the wet stone, the slit off by squads to search the surrounding area. Charlie and Delta squads commenced their survey of the base tracking out from opposite directs, which would allow them to met in roughly the same place on the back side.

   Alpha and Beta squads secured the immediate area and searched for a way into the structure. While they identified what appeared to be the front of the structure facing almost due east, they could not find any visible means of opening the pyramid. What they required was an archeology team fully equipped to examine the structure. Since they didn't have that, they would have settled for the _Eternia's_ powerful sensors, but they didn't have that either.

   With the rain starting to abate, the decision was made to fortify their position and start setting up a defensive parameter. All the ordinance of the two carriers was unloaded at the tree line fronting the field. Anti-personel mines, claymores, flares, and assorted plastic explosive charges all placed liberally among the trees. They wouldn't stop an approaching army. The placement was designed solely to slow them up. Give the defenders time to group and bring their considerable firepower to bear. All this depended upon getting into the pyramid and taking possession of the battle armor waiting patiently within.

   Carrier number two transported three squads to carry out the ordinance placement with Alpha squad protecting carrier number one. The spirits that had been running high from the start of the mission waned as the inability to gain access to the silent stone structure outside continued. Some started to think the trip a wasted one better spent on a more constructive venture.

   Sorceress ignored the goings on around her as she huddled in a blanket trying to dry out and warm up. After eating a meager portion of the MRE (meal-ready-to-eat) she settled back, closed her eyes, and concentrated on becoming one with the flow and eddy of the magical currents of this unknown planet. Much to her surprise, the degeneration plaguing her was, temporarily at least, in remission. Could Doctor Carter's theories about her armor be true? It sure started looking that way. This temporary reprieve allowed her to slip into the magical currents and follow it around the planet. After only a few minutes, which seemed to last hours, Sorceress' expanded consciousness returned to the pyramid. 

   She moved about it at will without concern for the falling drizzle, which did not affect her anymore than the cold in this state. Though it was full dark, she could see the stone clearly. Her wanderings finally brought her up to the east face. This was indeed the entrance as they had suspected. This was where she felt drawn. Curiously enough, even her heightened magical sense could not penetrate the structure with any more success than the technology they carried.

   On a hunch, Sorceress simply pushed her disembodied presence into the stone. Where there should have been a moment of intense cold and the need to force her way through a physical barrier, there was surprisingly none. The darkness within was near absolute, yet Sorceress could see clearly. Interior corridors looked little different from the exterior. She quickly discovered the passages were laid out like a virtual maze. The falcon-woman explored as much as she dared without getting totally disoriented before returning to the carrier and the warmth of her physical form.

   Sorceress was abruptly awakened when the carrier was in sight. Spirit and physical forms snapped together dizzyingly as her concentration shattered. No longer was she sitting with her back against the bulkhead. Rather, someone had laid her out on the bench seat, placed a folded blanket under her head, and covered her with an extra blanket.

   Sorceress raised her head, blinked blurred eyes at Colonel Markson. "I think I've found a way in," she replied, still sluggish and a little dizzy.

   "That's good," the man replied grimly. "Because company has arrived."

  Starship _Eternia_

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 16 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   After releasing the dropships, Captain Majourny completed two more orbits to be sure there were no problems with the drop before ordering Ace to break orbit. With the beacon in place, _Eternia_ flew off to her place of concealment behind the inner most of the moons; an orb nearly as large as earth riddled with volcanic activity. Ace eased the starship into a stationary position just outside the moon's gravitational influence. After making sure the sensor platforms released periodically along their flight path into the system were functioning normally and the signal relay nominal, _Eternia_ went cold and silent.

   Skeleton shifts started as soon as they were on station to allow as many personal as possible time to sleep and prepare for the coming battle. The main engines were kept on a hot standby making them ready for near instantaneous use as opposed to a cold start using up precious minutes warming them up. All offensive and defensive weapons were double checked and placed on standby. There was no telling how long it would take for Markson's unit to enter the pyramid and acquire the armor. Not telling how far behind the Horde pursuers were. One thing Jo-jo did know was when it finally hit the fan it would be fast, furious, and very, very ugly.

   Regular updates were passed back and forth from the habitable moon via the beacon. So far the news from Markson had not been good. They had been on station readying defensive positions and laying surprises for six hours, but there was still no progress in finding a way into the pyramid. Jo-jo wondered is Sorceress' friend could let them in, and even thought of dispatching a message, but thought better of it. She vowed not to meddle in their operation with 'armchair quarterbacking' or 'micromanaging'. Protecting the _Eternia_ was her job. Seeing the gound-pounders came home alive was Markson's when his unit was off the ship.

   Hours continued to drag as the same boring reports continued to be passed back and forth. Everyone was becoming painfully aware of time; United States Eastern Standard Time, to be exact. With sixteen hours remaining to the deadline, it looked like they may not make it. Soon President Alexander would have to appear before the World Council and President Roshenko to explain the launch of the _Eternia_. If they didn't have the mystical armor in their possession by the deadline, their mission would be recalled. Even if they did make it, there was no guarantee they wouldn't be recalled.

   "Captain," the ensign manning the senor console suddenly spoke up. "Passive sensor drones are picking up what appears to be an anomaly consistent with a starship exiting hyperspace."

   "Confirm," Jo-jo ordered, sitting up a little straighter in her chair.

   After a few seconds of rechecking his displays, the young man answered, "Confirmed. Six vessels identified. Configuration and mass unavailable at this distance without going active."

   "Leave the drones in passive mode. Keep an eye on them. How long until they reach the system?"

   "Approximately seven hours around the time of local dawn on the moon."

   "Very well." Jo-jo composed and personally dispatched a message to Colonel Markson, then killed the communications relay. The bridge crew eyed her actions suspiciously, but none dared ask why she was cutting the colonel's unit off from them.

  Unknown Moon

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 14 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   Colonel Markson replayed the message for the benefit of his entire command. Captain Majourny's message was brief and to the point. All further communication would end after receipt of the message. This was an arrangement she and Markson agreed upon to in an effort to surprise the Horde forces. It was the only option available with the best chance of success. The unit would just have to hold on as long as possible until the armor was secured and the _Eternia_ defeated any and all forces left in orbit to prevent a breakout.

   Beta, Charlie, and Delta squads were dispatched to the firing line set up two hundred meters from the tree line on either side of the road leading to the pyramid. While their technology has been increased in the past two years, it wouldn't be enough to turn back a hard press by Horde forces. All they could really hope to do was fight a delaying action until the armor and the _Eternia_ were brought into play. Then the battle would turn into a slugging match to see who would become the figurative last man standing.

  One thing they knew for sure, even without the translations from the data stolen from Rongar's warship, was that Horde technology had also increased. Not quite as much as their own, but it seemed likely the Horde would pinpoint the defensive positions with little effort. Having a couple warships backing you up with their powerful weaponry was also a good thing.

   About all the Guardian Force had going for it was the Horde was more interesting in finding out what they were after than simply destroying them. That in turn gave them an edge, which would not last more than another couple engagements before the Empire decided it would be better to simply destroy them and be done with it.

   While the squads prepared for their first real fight as a unit, Colonel Markson, Captain Takamora, Alpha squad, and the Guardians followed the Sorceress to the spot in the pyramid's east wall where she believed the entrance existed to see if they could gain entry.

   Unknown to any of them, there were forces at work watching their every move, and laying in wait for them within the ancient stone structure.


	11. Ch 10

Ten

  Former United Nations Building

  New York City

  United States, Earth

  Z MINUS 9 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   Things were getting tense the closer the time got to Zero Hour. A special closed session of the World Nation Advisory Council got underway at three o'clock eastern standard time. President Alexander and General Eugene Hammond along with the United States ambassador sat in attendance. The topic for the day was the Horde Empire. Almost from the start arguments ensued for or against allying with the power empire. Much to the dismay of President Alexander and General Hammond, those in favor of an alliance outnumbered those against it. Those in favor thought unkindly of President Alexander's launch of the _Eternia_ mission. They felt it would jeopardize whatever fictitious good standing they might have had with the Horde.

   President Alexander did come in on a few points regarding reasons not to trust the Horde. The points cited were grounded in facts from dealings two years ago as well as some of the decoded information released from the mass of intelligence stolen from General Rongar's warship. Information easily discounted as possible propaganda purposely left for them to find.

   As the closed meeting wore on, General Hammond could practically see the I.Q.s dropping around the room. True Horde intentions had been placed within a conceivable lie. President Alexander's allies knew it, recognized it, but being in a minority, could not get the other members of the World Council to see it.

   While the political wrangling continued, General Hammond hoped the Guardian Force was making infinitely more progress.

  Unknown Moon

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 9 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   Five hours of near fruitless searching wore on everyone's nerves. Sorceress' inability to remember her way did not help. She found the holographic projection concealing the entrance quickly enough. Once they entered and came to the first 4-way intersection, however, everything in her memory grew fuzzy. Sorceress tried to feel the pull from the armor, but the direction within the pyramid was vague and indistinct.

   "Is there anything you remember? Some kind of mark. Damage in a corridor. Anything?" Colonel Markson asked, trying to keep his impatience down. He and Takamora were aware something was not quite right with her; something serious enough for her to be closed-mouthed about it.

   "All I remember for sure is two sentries standing guard outside the entrance to what I believed to be the central chamber," Sorceress replied. She shook her head. That was all she could positively remember.

   Briefly, Sorceress described the sentries in amazing detail. Over eight feet tall, constructed of something resembling rock, and looking extremely powerful. She could not remember seeing any visible weapons, but that didn't mean they weren't present.

   Alpha Squad spread out in a search pattern gear toward exploring the corridors leading deeper into the structure. Sorceress was certain that's where the armor waited. So that's where they tried to go. After another hour of near fruitless searching, Colonel Markson considered calling off the search and taking their chances against the approaching starships.

   Markson joined the Guardians at the primary corridor hub. "This is getting us nowhere. Six hours and we haven't found a thing. It's as if someone or something as changed their mind. Eight hours left to the deadline. Horde forces will be landing out there any at moment. I have four platoons to think about. I'm sorry, Sorceress, but I'm going to have to call it quits."

   Sorceress didn't object as the man signaled the members of Alpha Squad. But before he could say a work, Private Johnson's voice broke over the tactical net. "Uh, Colonel, I think we found it."

   "What do you mean 'think'? Either you have, or haven't."

   "We found it," the private answered with more confidence. "And man are they ugly. The Wicked Witch of the West's got nothing on these two."

   "Stay well away from them," Colonel Markson ordered. "We're on the way."

   Within ten minutes, Alpha squad and the Guardians arrived in a corridor all swore had not been located before. It was as if events had to happen at precisely the right moment, and someone was seeing to it history unfolded that way. The group gathered ten meters from the hulking behemoths not wanting to venture any closer until they knew what they were potentially dealing with.

   Ugly was right. The stone figures made gargoyles look like beauty queens by comparison. Standing ten feet tall, make of solid rock, or what appeared to be rock, two tree trunks for arms and legs, and head a mother would have double-bagged for the duration. They guarded a triangular-shaped doorway from which streamed white light. Because of the faintness of that light, it was hard to judge the dimensions of the chamber beyond.

   "Now what? Someone go up and knock?" someone at the back of the gathering commented.

   Adrian, Jake, Jeromy, Sorceress, and Colonel Markson exchanged uncertain looks. "Why not?" Adrian replied, breaking from the group and walked cautiously in the direction of the stone sentinels.

   Markson ordered him back, but it was too late. Jake and Jeromy followed by the remaining Guardians trailed Adrian as he made his way toward the chamber entrance. Markson's vehement curses echoed in their ears through the boom mic earpiece, but he ordered his people to hold their ground. He wasn't psychic, but the colonel figured if those stone sentries were alive in some bizarre way, only a Guardian could pass safely by them.

   Adrian stopped twenty feet directing opposite the guarded entrance. The light here was much brighter, but still not enough to make even wild guesses about what lay beyond. Still no reaction out the sentinels, so Adrian made to walk slow and casual through the gapping portal. Part of his mind screamed at him to know just what he thought he was doing. In truth, Adrian really had no idea. He was simply rolling with his instincts.

  At fifteen feet, the stone guardians took no notice of him. At ten, nothing changed except the size of the monsters and the keen certainty either of them could smear him on the stones with just one swipe of their stony fists.

    At two meters red slits blazed suddenly like ruby fires in what passed for their heads. Joints that had not moved in ions cracked as they moved. The stones underfoot rumbled like a localized earthquake when one stony foot hit the ground.

   The behemoths came alive as if a switch had been thrown to the ON position. They closed blocked the path to the chamber beyond the portal, and locked their blazing gaze on Adrian Cobretti.

  Horde Fleet

  Unknown Moon

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 8 HOURS 30 MINUTES, 8 May 2017

   Zarin stared at the moon with barely restrained disgust. The mottled greens, blues and puffy white clouds swirled outside the view port in a pleasing sort of way to eye. To Zarin it was ugly. All he saw were kilometers of forest, choking masses of rainforest, and despicable fresh air.

   _I'll take artificial structures and recycled air any day_, Zarin scoffed to himself. He wanted this over a done with so he could get back to the comforting bleakness of the Fright Zone on Etheria.

   "Captain, we have detected a satellite in stationary orbit," the robot trooper manning the sensor boards reported tonelessly.

   "Any sign of the _Eternia_?"

   "Negative. They may be hiding deeper in the system."

   _Not likely_, Zarin surmised, viewing the sensor readings for himself. _Why leave what looks like a communications satellite in orbit only to go hide somewhere else? No. They are here, and close by. That satellite means they have already landed a force on the moon._ "Where is that satellite located?"

   The robot manipulated his controls. After a minute, it reported, "Northern hemisphere about three hundred kilometers from the equator. Sensors are picking up what appears a stone pyramid-like structure almost completely screened by the forest."

   "Life-signs?"

   "Massive. There is definitely something alive down there. Impossible to separate humanoid forms," the sensor trooper responded.

   Zarin did not like this. No starship detected, and impossible sensor readings. From a tactical sense splitting his force was not a good idea. Circumstances left him with little choice. If he didn't send down a landing force to investigate the pyramid, the humans would retrieve whatever it was they were after and get away. If he tried to discover what they were up to, they might still succeed by virtue of the head start they had. Worse yet, they may have already recovered what they sought.

   Zarin turned to the commander of his ground forces. "Launch grounding operations. We will support you with this corvette, three destroyers, and all the fighters on the three ships." The humanoid creature nodded its acknowledgement, and set off to carry out the orders.

   "Begin landing operation," Zarin ordered the robot pilots. "He watched silently as the planet shifted and started to draw closer. All the while, his brain milled over the unknowns awaiting them on the surface.

  Starship _Eternia_

  Unknown Moon

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 8 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   Captain Majourny watched the video relay from the recon satellite placed in polar orbit of the moon concealing her ship. Four Horde warships broke orbit and entered the atmosphere. One corvette and a destroyer stayed behind to catch anything attempting to leave the surface. Once the four warships traversed safely into the lower atmosphere, fighters, heavy landing craft and troop transports disgorged from their mother ships, and fanned out over the forested terrain.

   Ace shook his head at the size of the force deploying against their companions on the habitable moon. There wasn't enough weapons and ammunition in the _Eternia_'s armory to handle even half of what they faced. His eyes turned to the passive sensor readings of the Horde ships. The fighter pilot in him began analyzing the enemy for likely blind spots, vulnerable points, and other places to deal crippling blows.

   As it happened, Lt. Denton was thinking along similar lines as far as the weapons available in the _Eternia_'s arsenal. Probable warhead yields and combinations for the reaction and plasma torpedoes. There also swarms of fighters, assault gunboats, and breeching pods to take into account.

   All of which could be effectively employed to devastating effect on them. It all boiled down to the element of surprise. That alone could even the odds if they destroyed one of those warships before they even realized the _Eternia_ was there. Then go toe-to-toe in a slugging match with the remaining ship. If they survived that, they would have four more ships to contend with within the moon's atmosphere where their maneuverability would be limited, but still deadly in the amount of firepower they could bring to bare.

   Regardless of all the plans they made, none would survive the opening volley. The best-laid plans never survived contact with the enemy. They didn't have the brute force to win through, so they would have to be cunning devious, and outright bold bordering on insanity. Unpredictable. If there was one thing the Horde hated about humans, it was their unpredictability and that gave them an exploitable edge.

  Unknown Moon

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 8 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   Four pulse rifles snapped up and tracked the stone leviathans as they moved to block Adrian Cobretti's path. Colonel Markson waved them off. Nothing they had would hurt these sentries that had stood the test of time. Probably created by magic, it seemed unlikely they would be easily destroyed by primitive technology like ballistic weaponry.

   Sorceress, Jake, Sonya, followed by a reluctant Brad and Jeromy gathered around Adrian. Twin ruby beams swept over the nervous humans as they defiantly stared down the stone behemoths. It didn't hurt, but each would later swear it penetrated their bodies. Some kind of extremely sophisticated genetic scan.

   _IDENTITY CONFIRMED. THE CHOSEN HAVE ARRIVED. YOU MAY PASS._

   No one could tell where the cold, toneless voice came from. It seemed to echo in their minds as well as their ears. The truth of the statement was undeniable, however, as the stone sentries stepped aside allowing the six a clear path.

   "Colonel, return to your command. There is nothing more for you to do here," Sorceress spoke into her boom mic. "It's unlikely you would be allowed to pass, anyway. They will need all of you outside to hold off the Horde until we get the armor out."

   Colonel Markson tried to hide his apprehension, partially succeeding. "I could leave a couple people here just in case."

   The most serious Jake Rockwell had yet to be since signing on to this mission, he replied, "Get out there, colonel. You know that's where everyone is needed now. We'll be all right."

   Sonya, Brad, Jeromy added their voices to that of their companions. Unable to deny the truth, Markson nodded once, and wheeled about issuing orders over the tactical net.

   Adrian led the way into the vast inner chamber. Vast turned out to be an understatement. The only wall they could see was the one now behind them, but one got the feeling of an enormous space. The light beaming down on the six immobile suits of power armor had no readily discernable source. The overall effect seemed anti-climatic for such a momentous occasion.

   "Not very imposing, are they?" Brad commented idly.

   "From thirty yards, you aren't very imposing, either," Jeromy pointed out.

   "Welcome, Guardians. The time for the revival of the armor is at hand," a tall woman dressed in flowing white silks said from the shadows to the left. "But first there is a question you must answer before you will be allowed to take possession of the armor."

   "Allowed? By who?" Sonya demanded. To her, it looked like no one could stop them. The Sentries let them pass, and there was only this one woman who didn't pose much of a threat.

   Kodec regarded Sonya the way a teacher might regard a rough-edged pupil with great potential. "The armor. The suits will not allow you to use them unless they are sure you are capable." She held up a hand to forestall Brad's coming remark about their months of physical training. "It's not the physical part, Mister Johnson. It's the will and the desire to use those suits as they were intended. They are weapons of war designed and built with but one purpose in mind: to destroy. So you must ask yourselves one question. What are you prepared to do?"

   "We are sworn to protect our world by any means necessary within the bounds of our laws," Jake replied, displaying an unusual insight he took great pains to repress.

   "And _then_ what are you prepared to do?" Kodec asked again.

   Adrian countered with a question of his own. "Who are you?"

   Sorceress stepped close to her mentor. The recognition on her face did not go unnoticed by her companions. "Why is this question so important?"

   Kodec sighed. _They don't understand, and I'm not sure we have the time for them to find out._ "You stand at a crossroads, one of many in your path. What you do here, what you _decide_ here will have repercussions for years to come."

   "We still don't understand," Adrian declared. "We have sworn to get Horde Prime by whatever means available. What more do you want? We are not sure how to do this. Are you offering your help? Or have you been helping us already?"

   Adrian's questions caught Kodec off guard, but she recovered quickly. "You must fight fire with fire. If Horde Prime's minions pull a sword, you pull a gun. If they send one of yours to the infirmary, you send one of his to the junk pile. That's how you get him. Once this armor appears Horde Prime will recognize it. He will know the significance of it, and the danger to him. You will be the primary obstacle to his plans for total domination of the galaxy."

   Sorceress reiterated what had already been said. "We have sworn to use any and all means within our power and within the boundaries of their laws."

   Kodec sighed again, walked a few paces away. "Well, it's a start, I guess." She walked back to the group and held out a hand palm down. Without thinking, the others placed their hands on hers. Adrian hesitated where Sorceress did not, but didn't buck the trend. "You are all aware of what a blood oath is?" Six heads nodded their understanding. "Good! You just took one."

  Unknown Moon

  Galactic Spiral Arm

  Z MINUS 7 HOURS 47 MINUTES, 8 May 2017

   Horde landing operations began shortly before local dawn. Hundreds of Mark I Troopers and shock troopers disgorged from the transports grounded in the clearing Colonel Markson's unit used in his landing. Grounded transports littered the massive one-mile diameter clearing while more hovered in the air waiting for their turn to land and unload their cargo. The entire operation was carried out smoothly with areas blocked off for specific items to unload. 

   Troopers gathered to the north and circled around to lead the charge into the forest. The command center was set up at the far western perimeter. Heavy weapons like armored carriers and tanks were off-loaded to the south. Coordinator robots, identified by their crimson domes, began organizing the assault forces into lethal combinations of troopers, tanks, and previously unseen special invasion weapons. All the while fighter squadrons roared overhead searching for the enemy they knew hid from view in the forest or pyramid.

   Colonel Markson and Captain Takamora observed the activity from the deep in the forest via remote cameras set up in concealed places to watch the landings and deployment patterns.

   "Looks like they aren't holding anything back," Hohiro observed.

   "They have held off the bombing runs. That's a plus in my book," Markson said. He manipulated a control on one of the monitors set up inside the pyramid entrance. The adjustment moved a camera view to bring the heavy weapons into sight. Tanks and a few artillery pieces maneuvered into their assigned positions. "That artillery could probably hit us from there with ease."

   "Definitely at the top of the list," Hohiro agreed. He turned to a laptop computer and began typing commands into it. He assigned targets to their surprise attack plan as the colonel identified them. This attack would use up their distance striking power, but, then, they knew they couldn't last long right from the start even before they began spying the enemy.

   The dropships transported the armored carriers to small clearings several miles to the north and southeast five hours ago, then found places of concealment for themselves where they would wait until summoned. The surprise attack would be launched from the carriers in the form of missile salvos. Missiles armed with powerful plasma warheads would descend on the enemy forces in an attempt to take out those targets specifically identified that could hurt them the more. The missile magazines contained enough weapons for two salvos of twelve missiles per carrier. Enemy counterattacks would destroy the empty vehicles in short order. Losing them would not hurt them too much as all the weapons, ammunition, and equipment had been stripped from them before being moved to their launching points.

   As the pair watched, scouting parties formed up and broke away from the main force and headed for penetration points in the forest. Four soldiers from Alpha Squad, at a gesture from Colonel Markson, typed furiously on banks of four laptops. These were the remote consoles for the sentry guns strewn through the forest behind the line of anti-personnel mines. After a few moments tapping away on each keyboard, the four nodded to their commander.

   The guns were armed, and the missiles were warming up.

   Markson opened his com to his entire command. "They're on the move. All units stand by. Remote guns are armed, and missiles will be ready to fly in thirty seconds. Watch your fire and check your targets. Conserve ammo as much as possible. We hold the line no matter the cost."

   Private Road leaned over to whisper to his companion Private White. "You think they hit the mines yet?"

   Distant sharp explosions rippled across the forest ripping apart underbrush, trees, and the unlucky trooper. Rolling thunder rumbled for a full fifteen seconds before dying down.

   Private White, blowing at bubble from the wad of gum he chomped on until it popped, replied, "Yip."

   Road grimaced. "Smartass."

   "Yip."

   Colonel Markson looked back at Hohiro, whose right middle finger lay poised over the EXECUTE button on the terminal that would launch four-dozen plasma rockets. Hohiro's eyes were glued to the sensor displays showing the enemy's progress. Horde troopers were steps away from entering the lethal range of the eight robot sentry guns. He snapped his gaze to up to meet the colonel's.

   "Fire."

   Hohiro jammed the key down brutally.

   Captain Zarin watched the deployment of his forces with disdain. They were taking far longer than they should have getting down and organized. The longer they took lent more time for the humans to find whatever it was they were looking for. Zarin paced the bridge impatiently willing the robot troopers to speed things up. Finally after an interminable amount of time, which he vowed to do something about when the operation was finished, Zarin ordered the command troopers to move out. Ranks of scouts bore down on the tree line and the trail. Long minutes passed, then explosions rippled across the landscape as the invaders happened upon the cleverly concealed mines. Damage to trees and underbrush proved more severe than to the metallic invaders, though many were damaged or destroyed.

   Zarin expected the tactic. He even though they might have sentries out there somewhere waiting to start picking individual robots off in an attempt to incite confusion. He looked again at a monitor displaying the heat traces concentrated in and around the pyramid. Those traces were growing larger as the sun continued to rise raising the ambient temperature.

   It was now or never.

   "Artillery units standby to begin bombardment," Zarin ordered.

   Robots manning the mobile artillery pieces loaded their powerful weapons, and waited to order to fire. That order was on Zarin's lips when alarm bells suddenly wailed around the bridge.

   "Incoming fire!" One trooper shouted above the cacophony.

   "Missiles inbound. Backtracking to launch point," another reported.

   Out the bridge view ports Zarin spotted the telltale signs of multiple missile launches to the north and southeast. As the first volleys tracked toward the robot army, another volley rose into the early dawn sky. Point defense weapons began filling the sky with blistering laser fire in a vain attempt to shoot down at least a few of the incoming missiles. However, Horde thinking did not consider small one-man fighters or small missiles to be of any threat, thus, all the weapons got threw.

   The missiles slammed their hardened nosecones into the soft dirt. Once forward momentum ceased, the explosive charge detonated setting off the plasma warhead. Plasma matter vaporized the few feet of soil encasing them and boiled outward as the reaction consumed everything in its path. Dozens of plasma globes rippled up across the fielded army. Zarin watched in horror as his vaulted artillery cannons were the first consumed in fiery energy approaching the heat of the sun. Hundreds of troops and roughly fifty tanks also ceased to exist; their matter fueling the reaction. Once the original material, plus the consumed metal, soil, and other debris reached their limit, the globes dissipated as quickly as they appeared leaving the battlefield littered with craters, many of which overlapped.

   Zarin seethed at the hellish scene below. Smoke billowed out from were a full quarter of his forces once stood. "Find those launch points and annihilate them," the humanoid hissed. "Regroup the remaining forces and press the assault. Forget capture. Destroy them for their arrogance. Send in the combat drones. _Kill Everything!_"


	12. Ch 11

Eleven 

  Unknown Star System

  Near Orbit

  Z MINUS 6 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   Jo-jo ran through the corridors from her quarters to the nearest lift, shrugging on her uniform jacket along the way. The alert from the bridge roused her from a light sleep, and energized her as only impending combat could.

   The lift doors parted, Jo-jo barely giving them time to get out of her way in her haste to get to her command chair. "Report," she ordered calmly, fiddling with the display screens at her left and right hand.

   "It started a few minutes ago," Ensign Anderson replied. "Multiple explosions classified as anti-personnel mines. Impressive plasma explosions followed that up two minutes later. It's hard to tell with the limited sensor gear crammed into the com sat, but it looks like the full compliment of missiles from the two APCs."

   Jo-jo reviewed the latest sensor readings. Horde forces were going crazy while the fighters repeatedly strafed specific sections of forest. She suspected Markson might use the carrier's missiles as a diversion. To kick things off this early he must have detected a considerable threat to his position. Not that almost two full divisions of troops and heavy armor weren't enough of a threat without the corvette and three destroyers hovering close by.

   "What are the ships in orbit doing?"

   Anderson rechecked his instruments. "They're just sitting there, captain. A few fighters patrolling the area, but otherwise they appear to be waiting for something to attempt escape."

   "I'm surprised they left that communications satellite alone," Ace commented.

   Jo-jo agreed, "So am I."

   "Probably considered it a waste of power taking a shot at it," Ensign Comorov put in.

   "No sport?" Ace asked. The young man shrugged and turned back to his navigation console.

   "Damn," Jo-jo hissed to herself. No options left. If they didn't engage now, Colonel Markson would be overrun before the Guardians could bring their armor into the fight. They might be overrun even if they managed to kill that corvette and destroyer on the first pass before heading in to assist. Mind made up, the captain stabbed the intercom button. "All hands, man your battle stations."

  Alarm klaxons rang throughout the ship matched with glowing red bars in the corridors and panels in each compartment. People began rushing to their assigned stations and prepared for battle. Bulky torpedoes were loaded into the forward launch tubes with the pre-arranged warshots and warhead yields. The weapons were raised into the torpedo rooms via elevators from the magazines one deck below. From there ramming rods were employed to push the weapons into the tubes. This operation could be done manually in an emergency, but the reload time was effectively tripled. With the mechanical assist, reloading after the first salvo was launched would take a mere fifteen seconds with the next salvo being prepared in the magazine room.

   Panels all over the ship opened to expose laser emplacements, most of which were automated. The only exception was the dorsal and ventral quad guns that required a physical operator.

   Two minutes after the call to battle stations, all sections reported manned and ready. 

   "Target the destroyer. We nail her and loop around for the corvette. If they do get fighters launched, leave them to the point defense and the quad guns. Our objective is to neutralize the capital ships and get below to help our people on the ground. To that end we need to take those warships out as quickly as possible. Once you get a lock fire the weapons. Don't wait for my order." Jo-jo looked each member of her bridge crew in the eye as she explained the battle plan. Simple, but hopefully they could catch the Horde off guard. She turned to Ensign Anderson. "Anything from Colonel Markson?"

   The young man shook his head soberly. "Nothing, captain."

   _No options left._ "Full power to engines. Let's get 'em."

   The one supreme failing in the Horde mentality was that they had enjoyed such superiority over the planets they conquered, it was inconceivable that anyone would willing attack them save the Masters of the Universe, and She-ra and her rebels. Because of this, the Horde warships had their sensors trained on the moon expecting the _Eternia_'s attack to come from there. No commander in their right mind would leave a force on the ground without some kind of air or space support. Oh, they had the dropships that delivered them to the surface, but those ships were not as effective as true fighters would be. 

   Because of self-proclaimed their superiority, no one saw the _Eternia_ coming until it was too late.

   At maximum range, the torpedoes with reaction warheads launched from the portside tubes. Five seconds after they were away, the plasma torpedoes in the starboard tubes launched. All four weapons homed in on their target without a hitch: the Horde destroyer. The reaction torpedoes feathered their drives in an effort to stagger their impacts. The result turned out to be greater than their designers imagined. Staggered energy detonations against the destroyer's shields in almost the exact same spot, give or take a few inches, overloaded them. The energy blister flickered as the robot crew struggled to keep the shields operating. It was all for naught as they died instants before the plasma salvo crossed the invisible line the shields normally occupied and slammed into the armored hull.

   The plasma detonations were even more spectacular as two staggered globes of boiling plasma energy ate the warship from the inside out. The torpedo nosecones were designed to penetrate the hull plates with the drives revving up to maximum thrust second before impact to drive the weapon as deeply into the ship as possible. When the speed began to fall off from the resistance of many bulkheads penetrated, the warhead exploded. The drive section disappeared in the first plasma cloud. The second vaporized the middle leaving the forward quarter to tumble into the atmosphere were it would die an ignominious death.

   _Eternia_ plunged through the dissipating plasma clouds, energy tendrils licking at the shields, as Ace dove at the corvette. The commander of this ship expected trouble judging by the speed with which fighters ejected from the launch racks. Jo-jo slapped hands against the armrests and clutched them with a death grip as Ace pulled up at the last possible moment. The starship shook violently as their shields bounced and scraped along the enemy corvette's dorsal shields. Sporadic laser fire chased the starship as it sped away past the horizon. Only a few blasts actually connected with the shields doing negligible damage.

   Jo-jo glanced at the weapons status display. All four tubes were reloaded and ready for firing. The forward laser cannons and railguns were also primed and ready. Once out of site around the moon, Ace veered toward open space where he executed a one hundred and eighty degree loop, and rolled on the horizontal axis to bring the starship level relative to the enemy warship.

   A dozen fighters swarmed up in pursuit. They closed the range in minutes. When they drew close enough that the point defenses couldn't possibly miss, the forward lasers, quad guns, and port and starboard lasers opened up. One fighter took a pair of twenty-inch titanium shells from the railguns right down the throat. The solid shells accelerated nearly to the speed of light ripped through the unshielded Horde fighter as if it had been armored with paper. A few bright flashes marked its systems failing, and it tumbled away. Two more fell to the dorsal and ventral quad guns, and the port side emplacements badly damaged another.

   Jo-jo wasn't concerned with the fighters. They could be handled well enough. It was the corvette she wanted to kill as quickly as possible. As two more fighters blossomed into beautiful fireballs, Ace opened up the drives to maximum. A salvo identical to the one released against the destroyer left the tubes even though the enemy vessel was not in sight. The starship's sensors fed the torpedo brains constant course and speed corrections. Twenty seconds after the launch another salvo of four torpedoes left the launchers. These flights did not stager as the initial assault did. This was largely due to supposition that a corvette could fill the space around it with a considerable screen of laser fire.

   However, a lucky hit could detonate one of the torpedoes, and thereby vaporize the entire flight. With that in mind, the flight of weapons broke up their clustered group when the reached their terminal run – the point at which the weapons were homing on their target and sped up to attack velocity.

   Horde weapons opened up when their sensors detected the torpedoes inbound. They were so small, however, that they set their weapons for proximity detonations in the hopes of scoring a lucky hit. When _Eternia_ rounded the horizon the Horde robots had a new dilemma. Keep trying for a hit on the torpedo flights, or turn their attention to the human starship.

   Further indecision reigned as twenty-inch shells began pounding the stout shields. Jo-jo listened to the _thrum-thrum_ of the electromagnetic weapons pumping out a titanium shell once every three seconds. She had no delusions about a lucky hit. She just wanted to confuse them as much as possible.

   One of the plasma torpedoes from the first salvo took a glancing blow. The impact damaged the weapon enough that it veered off course. By a stroke of good fortune it headed out and away from the battlefield where it erupted in a massive plasma globe. Another proximity detonation fried the guidance system of one of the weapons armed with a reaction warhead. That weapon tumbled into the atmosphere. The remaining weapons slammed into stout Horde shields just aft of the bridge. The array faltered for several seconds, but resumed its normal operating strength as the second wave bore down on the warship.

   The corvette had turned enough to face its attacker when the second wave struck. Reaction warheads and plasma charges detonated almost as one obscuring the massive warship completely. Although their sensors were not sophisticated enough to target specific areas like the bridge, Lieutenant Denton tried his best. After the massive eruptions obscured the enemy ship, he aimed for the heart of the plasma storm and continued pumping titanium shells into it until the _Eternia_ flashed past.

   Jo-jo eyed the aft sensor display as Ace headed for open space to come about for another run. It took a few moments before the enemy ship to clear the plasma storm, but the sensors clearly showed its forward shields were down. Completely overloaded. The Horde ship lined its bow up on the retreating _Eternia_ in preparation to pursue. However, something about its movement seemed just a bit off. The enemy's bow lined up on their adversary, and continued tracking to their port side.

   _Have we hit a vital control system with a lucky shot? _Jo-jo wondered as the Horde vessel suddenly drifted 'down'. The view abruptly changed as Ace brought them around for another run against the ship massing nearly six times their size. He was just lining up for the next torpedo and strafing run when the enemy erupted in a brilliant explosion scattering pieces of itself, some the size of a two-story house, into the moon's atmosphere.

   Stunned silence griped the bridge at the sight. Ace was the first to break it. "I guess we hurt them worse than I thought."

   "Save the cheers. We still have a job to do on the ground," Jo-jo replied grimly. A sensor sweep of the surface as they flew past the warship indicated heavy weapons fire on the ground in the area of the pyramid. "Heat shields to maximum. Use all non-essential power to reinforce them. Plot a steep dive to get us through the upper atmosphere as quickly as possible."

   Ace was used to Captain Majourny's sometimes insane orders, having worked with her in the past, but this topped nearly all of them. Captain, we've never even conceived of a maneuver like that, much less run it through a simulation."

   Ensign Anderson chimed in. "Captain, the ship may not take that extreme of a re-entry. If we do make it, the ship may not be in much shape to help."

   "I'm well aware of the risks. But if we don't take the chance everyone on the surface is dead. Some are dying even now." She cracked a rare half smile. "Besides, according to the odds of success we just faced against two Horde warships combining nine times our mass, we should already be dead." She pepped Ace with the most serious stare he'd ever had to misfortune to witness. "_DO IT!_"

  Great Pyramid

  Unknown Moon

  Z MINUS 6 HOURS, 8 May 2017

   Remote sentries ripped the forest apart as they emptied their seven hundred round ammo drums as fast as the cyclic rate would allow. Explosive caseless rounds pounded Mark I troopers and shocktroopers alike. Portable sensors showed, however, that something particularly nasty was coming their direction, and the explosive rounds had no effect on them whatsoever. Colonel Markson had a growing mass of dread in the pit of his stomach.

   Meanwhile, Horde fighters roared over the battlefield searching for the launching points of the missile bombardments that so devastated the grounded armies. They found their quarry quickly enough when two took minor damage from surface-to-air missiles launched from lone carriers parked in the middle of a clearing a half-kilometer in diameter. The fighters broke off and regrouped in pairs several kilometers away from the targets, and lined up for their runs. The object was for the first pair in line to draw the enemy fire while the second pair blasted the enemy off the face of the moon. Their tactic was most effective. As planned, the automated defenses of the armored carriers scanned the inbound fighters and launched missiles against them. More hits did little damage to the durable Horde armor. The second pairs swept in behind their comrades and unleashed a laser barrage on the launch points simultaneously. Twin fireballs boiled into the sky as roaring explosions marked the demise of the carriers.

   The fighters winged over and headed back to their lines as the firing in the forest suddenly ceased. A few sporadic shots marked the demise of the empty remote sentries then silence fell like a blanket.

   Colonel Markson ordered several people to shut down the equipment set up in the mouth of the pyramid entrance. With the sentries empty and destroyed, and the carriers lost, there was no more need for the remote computers. Once powered down, everyone waited tensely at their assigned positions. The silence grated on Markson's nerves. He knew the enemy was out there. He could hear the crunching as something heavy moved through the foliage. The comm lines were quiet as the men and women waited for whatever was coming toward them to emerge.

   They didn't have to wait long. Tall humanoid shapes edged into the half-light at the forest edge. Three meters tall, they stood on two powerful, armored legs with block-like feet. The entire robot was covered in armor styled to give the thing a slender appearance. The head mounted atop a small bearing assembly was shaped in the same silver-gray armor with a hint of wavy contours while retaining the overall shape of a ten-sided dice. A large black visor scanned the area before the machine with a red, glowing backup camera centered above it sent back images in different light spectrums.

   The ten machines spaced along the tree line sported two arms ending in powerful five-fingered hands. Other vague shadows began forming in the gloom as similar machines crunched up to the skirmish line. These models didn't look right, however. Something just looked out of place.

   The short hairs on the nape of Markson's neck began rising to attention as more machines continued appearing. This did not look promising. Mark I troopers and shocktroopers were one thing. These looked much more formidable.

   And where the hell were the Guardians?

   The Guardians in question approached the six towering suits of armor on the raised platform. Kodec and her hidden companion, Corwin watched from well outside the magical boundary that prevented anyone except the true Guardians from approaching. From a distance the suits didn't look any more remarkable than the comic book character Iron Man or the Gundams. But up close was an entirely different story. Up close one could see the incredible workmanship. Identical yet designed with their individual uniqueness. And one could almost feel the destructive power waiting to be unleashed.

   Each person mounted the steps following the pull to a particular suit. Although having already inherited whatever knowledge and skills the former owner had to pass along, Adrian still knew what armor was destined for him. As the Guardians climbed the last step, a bright white light flooded the room spreading its brilliance to the farthest reaches of the chamber. When it faded, all six found themselves inside their respective powered armor.

  Heads-up displays lit across Adrian's field of vision. The spectrum changed just by thinking about it. He saw Kodec Ugnor and a previously unrevealed humanoid standing fifty meters away. Other status displays came up just by pointing an eye at it and holding the look for a second or two. The technology for such actions and control responses was a level far beyond what was possible on earth even with the technological boon from the _Eternia_. The view inside the helmet was a panorama. Wherever he looked the helmet moved, but the image displayed was as if he stood outside the armor. Adrian looked down and saw black and silver Etherium armor. All status displays showed fully functional despite a thousand years in storage. Little to no degradation in the power distribution system showed up.

   Up and down the line the armored figures regarded one another. The sight made Kodec think of old friends getting re-acquainted with one another. Distant thunder drew her attention to the arch. A fierce battle was happening somewhere out there. And it was time for the Guardians to make their appearance after a thousand years of waiting for time when they would be needed most.

   Markson ducked instinctively as the medium and heavy assault drones opened up on the pyramid with everything they had. Explosive armor-piercing rounds, high explosive fragmentation, and something no one had seen before that left white corkscrew vapor trails slammed into the stonework. Three soldiers died without ever knowing they had been hit. Markson and Takamora plastered themselves to the ground as hails of dirt and rock fragments pummeled them.

   Frost snapped his sights downward from his perch high up on the stepped exterior and centered them on the nearest robot with an abbreviated right arm where the forearm should have been was mounted a rectangular box assembly containing frightening firepower. He noted the heavy drones carried one such assembly on each arm. Frost centered on the chest plate, inhaled to calm his nerves even as more vapor trails left his target's weapon, exhaled part of the breath, and caressed the trigger.

   Fifty-caliber rounds slammed repeatedly into the thing's armored chest. The impacts actually rocked the machine, but did no appreciable damage other than an ugly dent. Frost snapped off his last two rounds, ejected the magazine, and reached for a fresh one. The drone's head scanned the stone structure looking for its assailant. Thermal scans located its quarry at the top. A fair distance, but not an impossible shot considering the firepower and targeting sensors it was equipped with.

   Vapor trails jetted through the air as something moved with impossible speed. Stone exploded inches from Frost's face. Combat instincts honed on many earth battlefields kicked in, and kicked him into a roll to his left. More fire ripped through the stone tracking along his movements.

   Dietrich spied the drone firing at his friend, and since he was on the first step down from the top, squirmed forward enough to round the corn, lock onto the drone, and began blasting away at it. The diversion worked. The alien machine shifted its aim at him as Frost rolled screaming over the edge. Two more drones, heavy models sporting two weapons assemblies, began blasting away at Dietrich forcing him to retreat.

   Frost landed heavily two steps down from the top. Somehow he managed to retain his fifty-caliber weapon, but had the breath knocked out of him. He couldn't stop his momentum after the first drop and rolled right off the next step. Now he lay on his back listening to the chaotic battle going on around him. After gathering his wits, Frost ejected the empty magazine and slapped in a fresh one. He rolled onto his belly and wormed his way forward. Laser fire, high-explosive rounds, and whatever it was leaving the vapor trails continued to pound the structure. Judging by the chaos coming through the tac net, he knew several had been killed in the opening barrage.

   Battle drones continued pounding away unmindful of the returning enemy fire. Powerful as their weapons were, nothing seemed capable of penetrating the armored drones. Determined to have some sort of victory before he bought it, Frost trained his sites on a distracted drone and searched for that elusive vulnerable point. Frost carefully observed the drone as it sought out, and shot at, targets of opportunity. The machine seemed unconcerned about the pounding enemy fire gave its armored body. But when pulse rifle fire tracked up toward the head, Frost saw a noticeable adjustment to protect the tinted visor.

   Frost just found his weak point.

   Taking careful aim, the ebony-skinned man blocked out the raging battle and roaring fighters. He concentrated solely on blasting a fifty-caliber round into that faceplate. Just as he was squeezing the trigger, the machine, acting as if it sensed the danger, turned its head toward Frost giving him the prime kill shot.

   The pair fired simultaneously. The drone missed. Frost didn't. The impact spoiled the battle machine's aim just enough that a vapor trail missed Frost by inches. Meanwhile, Frost's shot shattered the visor, ripped through fragile circuits and optics to rebound off the armored back wall of the head. Further ricocheting reduced vital electronics to so much scrap.

   Colonel Markson watched the drone shutter and shake from what appeared to be a lucky shot, and finally collapse as Frost's announcement cut across the tac net. Return fire immediately began tracking toward the black visors, and more drones started going down. Colonel Markson lined up on a drone equipped with twin weapons packs just emerging from the forest. It had Markson firmly fixed in its targeting reticule, and fired at the same instant as the human cowering in the pyramid entrance.

   Markson's aim was true, but the rounds did not hit as straight in as he had intended. The drone, however hit what it was aiming for. Stone exploded over Markson forcing him to jump away, or try to. Large rocks, and avalanche of dust and debris rained down upon the man pounding him to the ground. As the dust settled, Markson gathered his wits. His rifle lay just outside his grasp, but he couldn't get to it. He wasn't seriously injured - thanks to the armor - but he was pinned from the waist down. As the drone stomped closer for the sure kill, Markson desperately stretched and clawed for the rifle laying tantalizingly just past his fingertips.

   Heavy metal feet crunched dirt several feet away. Markson ceased his struggle and stared up at the soulless machine that would be his executioner. The right arm pod traversed to point at his head. He could see four muzzles in twin rows built into the face of the weapon. The upper right muzzle began to glow with the unmistakable priming charge of a laser weapon. Markson put on his best bold face, determined to at least show defiance to the end. Energy built up toward overload when the weapon would explode in the trapped human's face extinguishing his existence.

   A powerful globe of energy unlike anything yet seen on the field of battle sailed out of the inky darkness deep in the tunnel. Magical fire erupted on contact with the drone's chest. Circuits shorted out. The weapon pods lost power instantly, and the electrical system fried in seconds. Smoking pouring from its joints and seams, the neutralized drone toppled backwards.

   A tall figure, preceded by ringing footsteps of metal on stone, emerged from the darkness. Markson craned his head and shoulders around as much as he could to get a view of his savior. What stepped into the light shocked him visibly.

   The armored figure stood impossibly tall for a human; nearly eight feet. Blue forearms and forelegs, white thighs, upper arms, and lower torso, red breastplate unmistakably feminine in shape with a sapphire six-pointed star emblazoned on it, white neck and lower face, green eye lenses, and a helmet eerily resembling the headdress of the Sorceress of Grayskull.

   The right hand rose gracefully and moved away to the figure's right. In response, the rocks pinning Colonel Markson to the ground shifted and moved enough for the man to drag himself free. He retrieved his rifle, and stood to face the armored woman.

   "Sorceress?" he asked cautiously, scarcely believing what his eyes showed his brain.

   The figure merely nodded and walked out onto the battlefield. By now Colonel Markson noticed the firing outside had subsided. He poked his head out and saw more armored warriors lined up across the face of the pyramid. The last one just materialized opposite the heavy forces moving down the overgrown dirt path the Guardian Force had followed to the stone structure. Five in all faced the oncoming Horde army.

   _Five? There should be six. Where was number six?_

   Frost flinched away from a bright light that flared brilliantly off to his right. It subsided in moments leaving white spots dancing before his eyes. He blinked rapidly to clear them as the firing subsided. When he could finally see, he about dropped his weapon off the ledge. An armored warrior, like nothing he had ever seen before stood exactly halfway down the same step he lay upon, but facing the battlefield below. He couldn't see much because of the massive shield shaped somewhat like the nose of a fighter blocking the majority of the figure, but what he could see sent a shiver down his spine.

   _Someone is about to get it._

   Brad and Sonya marveled at the power readings in their heads-up displays. There was almost literally _nothing_ that could stand in their way save that heavy corvette hovering over the clearing. The startled robot forces were overcoming their surprise and resumed firing at the enemy. Laser bolts ricocheted off their Etherium armor not leaving so much as a blemish on the paint. Sonya, clad in a suit almost identical to that worn by the Sorceress, right down to the color scheme, snatched the beam spear from the mounting clasp on her back. The curved green energy blade flared into existence, and she sprang with a rocket pack assist into the enemy front lines. The only real different besides weaponry from the Sorceress' armor was Sonya's helmet being adorned with a golden hawk with wide-spread wings and grasping talons reaching down around her cheeks.

   Brad was not far behind with twin scimitars drawn. The blades heated up to the point where nothing could withstand them. The pair sliced three robots clean in half before anyone could react. Three more fell to their energy weapons as the enemy fire began tracking them.

   At the opposite end of the line, Jeromy drew twin combat laser rifles and began picking off robots one after another. One shot, one kill just as a sniper would do. Sorceress stepped from the pyramid entrance, threw up a magical shield to protect the surviving Guardian Force members with one hand, and began frying battle drones with powerful energy globes with the other.

   Adrian high up on the pyramid, and Jake facing the forces coming down the trail filled up the center of the formation. Jake's armor was colored in shades of white and dark green. At his command, giant twin gatling packs snapped away from his back on hydraulic arms and swung around to present the weapons to him in easy reach. Jake took the firing handles causing the hydraulic arms to retract, easily aimed the twin barrels of each assembly at the desired target with the power armor taking the weight with ease, and caressed the firing levels by squeezing his fingers.

   Plasma bolts unleashed in a devastating storm that chopped robots and drones limb from limb. Several Horde tanks sporting two cannons and adorned with grinning skulls sighted in on the powerful Guardian. Jake beat them to the punch. Plasma bolts from his four gatling cannons literally flayed the armor off the tanks in great sheets. Once revealed, the robots, delicate instruments, and their power cores within were torn to pieces. The power cores detonated disabling several more tanks coming up behind them.

   Only Adrian had yet to engage the enemy. He just stood on high surveying the battle. A pair of robots took shots at the immobile Guardian hoping for an easy kill, but the Etherium alloy dispelled those illusions. When a pair of laser bolts bounced off Adrian's helmet, the impact seemed to wake him up.

   "It moved!" one robot shouted to his companion as the enemy's face turned to regard them.

   "Never mind," the other shot back. "Keep shooting!"

   The massive rifle clutched in Adrian's right fist rose and tracked toward his attackers. The cannon's design allowed for three rapid shots via the three energy cell drums over the trigger assembly, or the energy could be combined into one massive discharge. Adrian selected this, locked the crosshairs of his heads-up display on the ground at the robot's feet rather than either of them, and pulled the trigger. Streams of energy flowed into the muzzle for a second or two before erupting into a blazing white-hot beam lancing down from the pyramid. It struck the ground with seismic force. The geyser of dirt, tree, and robot was seen clearly from the Horde warships.

   Commander Zarin was beside himself with rage. What should have been an easy destruction of the ill equipped human force was turning out to be anything _but_ easy. And now communication had been lost with the two warships in orbit. Tanks, troopers, and drones all reported the appearance of powerful battle suits, which suddenly appeared and began tearing them to shreds. Then the powerful energy beam destroyed a fifty-foot diameter section of forest just to take out two troopers.

   Before he could start issuing orders, the suits began moving. Two energy beams lanced out from the top of the pyramid, each downing a Horde fighter. On the view screens showing what the robots saw, the one firing those beams dropped to the ground beside the suit equipped with the gatling guns. The pair then began trading fire with the remaining tanks. Because the dead hulks of previously destroyed vehicles were in the way, the Horde machines could not close the distance or maneuver, easy kills for the pair who appeared to be having a game of one-upmanship.

   After Colonel Markson assured her he would be all right, the Sorceress moved to join Adrian and Jake. They stopped showing off once she joined them. Together, the six formed a skirmish line the Horde could not break. Indeed, the remaining forces retreated to the clearing where the remaining force waited under the umbrella of fighters and their capital ships. Laser rounds bounced off Etherium alloy, explosive rounds ripped up foliage, but nothing stopped the relentless advance of the six armored warriors as they pressed onward, witling down the enemy as they went.

   Zarin waited as the warriors advanced toward his regrouping forces. He disliked calling the retreat, but he would make it work to his advantage. His impatience grew as the enemy methodically destroyed every robot in their way. He itched to give the order that would end their threat once and for all, but he needed a target to shoot at. Explosions marked the demise of still more troopers and shocktroopers and then the six armored warriors exited the tree line.

   _Got you right where I want you, _Zarin thought. "_FIRE!_"

   The heavy corvette and three destroyers opened up simultaneously on the six suits of powered armor. Six blinding blasts of raw plasma energy lanced down from the warships to blast six craters in the earth.

   When the debris began to settle, all that remained were six smoking craters where the Guardians stood just moments ago.


	13. Ch 12

Twelve 

  Great Pyramid

  Unknown Moon

  Z MINUS 5 HOURS 17 MINUTES, 8 May 2017

   Shortly after the Guardians took the fight into the forest and back to the Horde, Captain Takamora reappeared.

   "Where the bloody hell have you been?" Colonel Markson rasped, at once glad the man was still alive, and angry he hadn't sounded off when the roll was taken moments ago.

   Hohiro displayed his damaged comm system, answering the question of his silence. However, he wasn't alone. Trailing behind Hohiro were the two stone sentries they encountered earlier. "Fine, thanks. How are you?" Hohiro jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Look who followed me home." 

   Markson nearly jumped out of his skin as the sentries exited the tunnel to flank Hohiro. He stared up at their near featureless faces. Only the eyes blazed red as brightly as ever. "Uh, yeah. Well, the more the merrier, I guess." The colonel jerked a thumb in the direction of the distant clearing the Horde used for a landing field. "They went that away." He had to practically jump out of the way as the stone behemoths marched off in the wake left by the six Guardians.

   "I wonder what history is going to say about this," Hohiro commented as he watching the rock creatures disappear into the wreckage of the forest.

   "Who cares?" Markson shot back tiredly. "You and I likely won't be around to read it."

   Further banter was abruptly cut off by explosions, rivaling the old Saturn 5 rocket launches of the Sixties, blasting across the landscape complete with appropriate ground quakes.  The already bright sky became blinding as the flash from capital ship weapons blasting the earth blotted out everything for miles.

   Of the four platoons first landed on the habitable moon, only two remained. Fully half of Colonel Markson's command had been either killed or severely wounded by the combat drones and their unusual weapons that left vapor trails when fired. He formed up all the able-bodied survivors into squads and, at a pace some would later consider reckless, headed off into the dust storm boiling through the tress.

   Commander Zarin stared at the landscape, a grim smile of triumph gracing his lips. Smoke and dust obscured six craters three hundred feet wide and fifty feet deep. The dust and debris slowly settled. Troopers, shocktroopers, and drones cautiously approached the craters, weapons at the ready. Zarin's smug smile tightened as the smoke cleared on the slight breeze drifting across the land. The deeper he could see into the pits with no sign of the power armor, the more his confidence rose.

   His smugness disappeared as the last wisps of smoke cleared away from the craters. What he could see that his forces on the ground could not frightened him. In five of the craters, energy shields glowed as the last tendrils of the plasma blasts were absorbed, redirected, and dissipated. Sensors displayed intact powered armor without so much as a scratch on the paint, but they had been knocked flat. The operators were undoubtedly dazed by the experience.

   However, crater number six, the one directly in front of his warship, where the suit with wings was, was empty. They didn't get the luxury of reacquiring the target. Around a dozen robot heads poked over the rim of the crater Jake Rockwell had been blasted into. Those heads and torsos were summarily ripped apart by a lethal hail of plasma fire from Jake's dual gatling guns he held aloft and horizontal for maximum carnage.

   A similar scene took place around the rims of the other occupied craters as the Guardians shook off their dazed conditions and resumed the battle. After knocking back the bold robots, five Guardians roared out of what was supposed to have been their graves on plumes of backpack thruster fire. Each landed lightly a meter from their craters as if it was something they did every day, and continued sticking it to the shocked Horde forces.

   Feril was having a rough time against the Horde fighters. Bigger, more powerful, and able to turn almost literally on a dime, Feril and he wingman, Lieutenant Junior-grade Jackson pulled every trick in the book to stay out of the enemy's gun sights. When those ran out, which took a matter of minutes, they invented maneuvers some of which were never dreamed of by the engineers. On more than one occasion Feril thought she heard something snap and pop somewhere behind the cockpit. She prayed the dropship would hold together for just one more maneuver, and she'd been saying that for the past four.

   Jackson tried a high-speed tight turn to the left in an attempt to turn inside his Horde pursuers. Feril saw right away it wasn't going to work as they effortlessly matched his turn.

   "Jackson! Pitch out! They're turning into you. PITCH OUT!" Feril mentally urged the man to heed her warning, but it became obvious he couldn't; the turn was just too tight. Trying to pitch out from it would likely damage something vital and cause the dropship to crash, or explode.

   Red laser bolts lashed out from the Horde fighters. Their fire missed initially, but the robot pilots quickly adjusted their aim. Laser bolts began slamming into composite ceramic armor marching up the dropship's spine to explode the cockpit. The ship detonated in a flaming cloud of debris scattering down into the forest where the fuel and unexploded munitions sparked isolated fires.

   "NOOOOO!" Feril screamed. She yanked back on the stick at her right hand throwing the dropship into a murderous climb away from her pursuers. At ten thousand feet she leveled off, rolled over and dove down into the onrushing fighters. Her maneuver took them by surprise, and they broke away from one another to get out of the madwoman's way.

   Feril pulled up at the last possible moment and roared away at just under tree top level. Branches slapped and broke against the composite ceramic hull Her RIO, Rear Instrument Operator, guessed where she was heading. "Left five degrees. The clearing is about a mile ahead."

   Laser bolts exploded in their wake as the four fighters formed up and roared after the surviving dropship. This one proved to be more of a challenge since its pilot accounted for seven fighters shot down. They wanted this one destroyed in a bad way. Orange blossoms lit the cockpit as Feril divided her attention between the heads-up display and the radar screen at her left hand. This would be a speed race to see who got there first. At a higher altitude the Horde fighters would win hands down. Here among the tree tops Feril had the advantage because the trees interfered with their targeting computers.

   All at once, they arrived at the clearing. Feril showed off just how quick and agile a dropship could be in certain circumstances. She exploded from the trees amid a hail of laser fire. Some bolts glanced off the ceramic hull as she threw the dropship into a hover faster than even the ship's quick reaction controls could compensate for. The weapons pods opened up smoothly as the targeting computer lock on to all four enemy fighters. Upper and lower pods belched fire and smoke as rockets leapt from their racks in short order at the moment a lock-on was acquired.

   Rockets corkscrewed through the air in pursuit of the fighters now finding themselves on the receiving end. Feril emptied her remaining ordinance into the air after her antagonists. She wore a grim smile of satisfaction as the enemy ships lost their battle to evade the return fire one by one. Seeing the flaming debris fluttering to the ground helped Feril vent enough to calm down.

   She took a quick check of her ship's status. It wasn't handling so well hovering thirty feet off the ground. This was a clear sign she'd likely snapped a few structural supports, maybe even damaged an engine. The rest of the stores list was not good. A few hundred pounds of fuel remained and all the weapon racks were empty. Reluctantly, Feril extended the landing struts and set down as close the to the trees as she could for cover. Once on the ground, she shut down the engines, and fired up the auxiliary power unit to keep the systems running. The comm chatter revealed numerous casualties in the opening rounds of the battle.

   Her attention returned to sharp focus, however, when mention of the Guardians came across the channel. They had finally arrived. From the sounds occasionally captured by a transmission, Feril deduced the Guardians were kicking ass and taking names. A slight tremor vibrated through the dropship minutes after the Guardians joined the fight. Feril quickly checked to make sure it wasn't something else giving out somewhere inside her ship. Satisfied everything was in order, she looked up and saw the residual aftereffects of warship-grade plasma weapons being discharged. Though they were several miles from the battle, the detonations must be horrific.

   "What was that?" the RIO asked nervously.

   Feril shook her head. "I'm not even going to begin to guess."

   Whoever built the power armor thought of nearly everything. Hanging over a hundred feet in the air on thrust jets from the wing assemblies, Adrian watched his fellow Guardians rejoin the fight and continue ripping the robot army apart. The destroyer to the north finally spotted him, and took a shot at him with a starboard plasma battery. Their shots missed by a wide margin because the targeting computers were not programmed to hit something as small as power armor or even a fighter. Horde mentality did not consider a fighter much of a threat. The outcome of this battle would change that.

   Adrian boosted higher getting a position above the warship where there were no defensive batteries. His targeting sensors zeroed in on the ship's heart – the plasma power core – took careful aim switching the rifle to a single powerful discharge, and squeezed the trigger. Energy ripped into the barrel for a second before the blinding yellow/white beam exploded into a tight shaft stabbing for the warship's heart.

   Normal weapons Horde forces encountered were fended off by their armor technology. The technology they now faced was anything but normal. Adrian's rifle combined plasma and energy into a lethal combination, which melted through the densest armor Horde warships could field. The key was hitting it not with a widely spaced beam that could be more easily dissipated, but with a tight beam impacting a specific area with enough power and duration to melt through to the vital systems within.

   Adrian pumped two more devastating blasts into the thick shielding of the power core as fast as his weapon's recharge rate would allow. He watched with grim satisfaction as the ship veered away losing both power and altitude. The ship plowing into the forest over a mile away from the battlefield, settled, and erupted in a cloud of smoke, fire, and flaming shrapnel. The shockwave leveled the surrounding forest to a distance of approximately three hundred yards around the crash site.

   The heavy corvette responded by backing away from the battlefield, throwing up a net of anti-aircraft fire along the way. Unknown to the human's, but painfully aware by Zarin, the Horde force of warships had been cut in half with approximately one-third of the ground forces still active. Zarin was trying to pull a victory out of this, but the strength, speed, and raw power of the Guardian armor was making any kind of a victory for the Horde all but impossible. Obviously, the _Eternia_ was responsible for the destruction of the ships left in orbit, but the starship had yet to appear in the battle zone. Zarin's only real hope was that the _Eternia_ had been damaged enough that it could not pursue him as he abandoned the rest of his ravaged command to its fate.

   Upon reaching the battlefield, Colonel Markson and Captain Takamora quickly evaluated the situation. The shear destruction from the warship-grade plasma weapons, to the chaos the Guardians and the stone sentries were causing was mind-boggling. The craters still smoked from the plasma strikes, and the shattered hulks of robots and drones lay everywhere.

   The heavy corvette backing away from the battlefield formed the backdrop to the stone sentries and six Guardians continuing to stick it to the Horde. The winged suit dropped into a soaring dive as several fighters dove in after him. Adrian rolled over to bring his rifle to bear releasing a backward blast that plowed into the lead fighter, and clipped the left wing of a trailing fighter. The remaining three fighters dove through the expanding fireball of their leader to continue the hunt. They appeared nearly desperate to inflict _some_ kind of damage of the apparently indestructible suits of power armor. They concentrated on Adrian when they should have been looking out for where he was leading them.

   With the stone sentries, four Guardians, and surviving members of Markson's unit taking shots at targets of opportunity, Jack Rockwell set his sites on Adrian's descending form. He led his intended target for several hundred feet before settling on a spot in the air and unleashing the full power at his disposal. Adrian had nothing to worry about even without being in contact with his companion because his momentum carried him away long before the plasma bolts reached him. The fighters behind him, however, were not so lucky.

   The diving form of Adrian Cobretti effectively concealed Rockwell setting up to ambush them. The robot pilots realized their mistake when their target rolled away to their right. A storm of plasma bolts from the ground slammed into the three fighters mercilessly. The fighter whose wing had been damaged previously simply exploded. The fighter at the center of the formation lost an engine depriving it of the power needed to pull out of the dive. The last Horde fighter did manage to wing out to its right, but that maneuver opened the belly to Jack's tracking fire, and blew it apart near the western edge of the clearing.

   By now the remaining Horde forces managed to close the distance where the devastating energy weapons the Guardians carried could not be effectively employed. Adrian touched down next to Jake, who let the mechanical arms reach around from him back to retrieve the cannons and return them to the storage position. Adrian's rifle and shield disappeared in bursts of white light. Panels opened in the underside of each forearm, retractable clamps popped out long enough to slide cylinders into the waiting hands before disappearing in a matter of seconds.

   Adrian ignited his twin energy sabers. Sorceress stood at his right shoulder, magical shield on the left arm with her remaining magical might focused into a blade projecting from her right fist. Sonya now had an Etherium shield materialize on her left arm to compliment the spear. Brad continued to use his scimitars while Jake and Jeromy were forced to abandon their ranged weapons in favor of their melee blades.

   Colonel Markson dug his surviving people into the craters to afford the best possible cover from everything except strafing runs. Despite the savagery displayed in this battle, all the combatants appeared to be waiting for the 'other' one to blink first. Using hand signals, Markson intended for his people to blink. He directed fields of fire and designated specific targets all with hand signals and clicks over the tac net.

   Hands tightened on handles and triggers. Eyes squinted tracking along pin sights. Heavy metal feet shifted minutely in anticipation. Though they were not equipped with emotion chips, Horde Troopers and Shocktroopers appeared on edge. Tension as stick as a slab of armor plate yet brittle as a seashell fell across the field building to the inevitable breaking point.

   As if someone telepathically shouted '_NOW!_' explosions erupted all around the Guardians. In the ensuing chaos, thermo-energy weapons, pulse rifles, laser fire, and magical energies chopped down a full three-dozen robots. Three surface-to-air missiles screamed across the debris field to slam into the few remaining tanks still capable of fighting. Follow-up heavy weapons fire finished the job. Six suits of power armor expanded outward from their center as if another universe had exploded and was expanding exponentially. Everywhere they passed, on foot or by thruster packs, shredded robots lay in their wake.

   A deep shadow fell across the field as one of the destroyers glided into to firing position. Hundreds of laser cannon ports glowed with priming charges in preparation to unleash another murderous plasma barrage. Several actually discharged when four unidentified objects slammed into the other destroyer moving to back up their comrades. The warship disappeared in four overlapping balls of boiling plasma explosions. Staring in stunned awe at the sudden violent demise of another enemy warship, the Guardian Force witnessed a very welcome sight. A small ship relative to the Horde monsters blasted through the expanding gases that had been a ship of war moments ago. As clinging tendrils of plasma stretched and finally broke away from the starship's shields, its shape became very clear.

   _Eternia_ had arrived.

   Scorched, stressed, bloodied, and damaged by the intense fires of re-entry, _Eternia_ somehow made it through the steep dive into the atmosphere even after the heat shields failed two minutes into the trip. More systems shorted out, but only a few were actually required to keep the ship running.

   Finding the battlefield hadn't been a problem because the course Ensign Comorov plotted brought them into the lower atmosphere almost on top of it. Sensors displayed in real time the intensity of the fighting, so no one on the ground was likely to notice the sonic booms as _Eternia_ dropped to subsonic speeds. The next thing they noticed was they had flown in through the proverbial back door. Two destroyers and one heavy cruiser were just waiting to be taken by surprise.

   Captain Majourny did just that.

   Four plasma torpedoes raced away on their mission of destruction. Jo-jo watched with a grim smile as the target destroyer evaporated in a fiery cloud of plasma detonations. Instead of maneuvering around the energy cloud, Ace plunged the scorched starship through it. The re-activated shields dissipated the boiling inferno where it clawed at the energy blister easily. This turned out to be a lot less stressful on the shields than re-entry had been. _Eternia_ passed through in moments dragging tendrils of plasma energy with it.

   The surviving Horde fighters launched in pursuit of what was undeniably the most dangerous element presently on the battlefield. Dorsal and ventral quad laser guns discharged in concert with port and starboard laser batteries to keep the fighters at bay.

   As _Eternia_ drew the fighter cover away, Adrian stared at the remaining destroyer. He had the power to destroy it, but that would mean leaving a dangerous hole in their ranks. Colonel Markson ended the debate upon seeing Adrian's poise. "Go! We'll keep this party going!" He punctuated the statement by cutting down two Shocktroopers attempting to take the Guardian by surprise.

   Adrian nodded, de-activated and stowed the beam sabers, recalled the shield and laser cannon, and blasted off right into the face of the destroyer. As he came abreast of the command deck windows, robots could be seen scrambling for non-existent cover. The targeting reticule settled on the windows, though Adrian could hardly have missed at the range of fifty meters, and snapped the trigger. As before, all the cannon's energy poured into one massive blast that melted the windows on contact, and blasted into the warship's control center. Two more blasts finished the job sending the ship into an uncontrolled dive into the ground. The decapitated Horde ship slammed into the ground at the southeast end and skidded into the trees angling away from the pyramid.

   When it came to a rest, Adrian grounded behind the dead warship, and prepared to discharge into it one more time. This energy beam would be different. Adrian threw all available power into a blinding blue beam exploding from the rifle's muzzle. Tendrils of blue energy sparked and sputtered like lightning throughout the hull as, nearly powerless, Adrian's armor collapsed. There hadn't been enough power left for the armor to remain standing, so Adrian lay on scorched grass waiting for the power cells to recharge.

   In the dim image lining the inside of his helmet. Adrian had a skewed image of Captain Takamora and several soldiers running across the carnage toward him. "You all right?" Takamora asked when he got within earshot.

   Adrian's response was barely audible over the external speaker. "Yes, but my power cells are nearly drained."

   "What did you do?" one of the soldiers asked, eyeing the dead warship.

   "Fired…electromagnetic pulse beam. Drained power to critical level…"

   Takamora frowned. "The ship was out of action. Why do that?"

   "De-activated robots still functional…inside. That many less to fight."

   _Smart kid_, Hohiro thought, glancing at the warship again. No activity could be seen anywhere around the hull.

   Using his eyes to manipulate the heads-up displays, he searched to files and options for some way to override the normal recharge and cause a ram boost of the power cells. He finally found what he was searching for in the diagrams for the power distribution system. In moments, power surged back into the systems. The green lenses of the eyes slits pulsed vibrantly as Adrian clambered to his feet.

   "Much better," Adrian replied. The images brightened inside the helmet and the volume from the external speaker strengthened. "Captain Majourny, can you hear me?"

   A moment later, Jo-jo's voice responded over the open link. "Loud and clear. Looks like you have been busy."

   "The fighting is winding down, but there's that corvette to take care up. We can't let it escape," Adrian replied. As he watched, the corvette halted its turn. Evidently, the commander came to the conclusion he wasn't getting out of here alive, so the only option left was take as many of the enemy with him as possible.

   "We see it. Looks like he's getting ready for something unpleasant. What can you do?"

   Adrian considered his options. The EMP pulse was out. Even if it did short out the warship's shields, it would leave his armor drained and he might not survive a fall from around a thousand feet up. The warship was bigger and more powerful so his full-power cannon blasts would hardly scratch the shields. Something took shape on his primary display. Adrian stared at the modified design the suit's rudimentary artificial intelligence assembled before his eyes.

   "How many torpedo salvos do you have time to fire?" Adrian asked, both liking what he saw and dreading it at the same time.

   Jo-jo consulted the displays at her left hand. "Time enough for two salvos," she replied as the ship shuddered from more laser impacts.

   "Just get me a vulnerable fluctuation in their forward shield array. I'll do the rest."

   "Do I want to know what you have in mind?"

   Adrian's answer was immediate, flat, and sent a shiver down Jo-jo's spine. "No."

 Jo-jo immediately issued orders. The first salvo would be reaction warheads. Plasma warheads in the second salvo should be enough to get the brief vulnerable condition Adrian wanted, especially when all the warheads were set to maximum possible yield. Ace brought the starship around in a broad arc aiming straight for the corvette's bow. Horde fighters continued to harass them, but the defensive arrays kept them at bay.

   Adrian launched himself skyward once again. In moments, he popped up suddenly in front of the command deck windows startling everyone present. Not wasting any time, Adrian lined up his rifle and began firing blast after blast into the shields.

   As expected, the hull-power blasts did no damage to the corvette's sturdier shields. "So, you _do_ have a limit after all," Zarin sneered. "Concentrate all forward batteries on that suit and destroy it."

   Sensors caught the power buildup in the forward defense array. _As expected_, Adrian thought, continuing to fire ineffective shots into the shields. This was nothing more than a delaying tactic. However, if the robots are on the ball, they will see the torpedo launches. _Looks like you're concentrating more on me than looking for the real attack_, Adrian thought evilly._ GOOD!_

   Announcements of the launches echoed over his link to the ship. Passive sensors showed the weapons on their way. Both the weapons and starship were so far away the Horde would not be able to see either through him, but it did not appear they where paying attention to their sensors. Did they really believe their stronger shields could protect them where their counterpart destroyers were not so lucky?

   The numbers cycled down rapidly as the torpedoes guidance zeroed in on the corvette. At ten thousand yards, the weapons kicked in maximum thrust and turned in on their terminal run. Adrian's timing had to be perfect. Though he wasn't the target, one or more of the torpedoes could catch him inadvertently if he moved to soon. With enough time the Horde might shoot a few of the torpedoes down lessening the amount of explosive force unleashed against the shields.

   Laser bolts lanced out from the warship's snout. A few came dangerously close, but most missed by a wide margin because he was simply too small for their targeting computers to lock onto. At two thousand yards, the missiles were at full burn, and the countdown reached zero. Dropping his arms to his sides, wings tucking in to a forty-five degree angle, the thruster pack ignited and boosted him up out of the way in seconds.

   Zarin immediately realized his mistake as soon as the power armor cleared the zone. Sensors that had intermittent contact with small inbound objects now got a positive lock on two flights of torpedoes roaring in at terminal velocity. Point defenses did throw up a defensive screen, but it was too little too later to concentrate it in a way that would take a few of them out.

   Four reaction weapons slammed into the forward shield arc unleashing blue lightning radiating out from the impact point. Their guidance computers homed in on a remarkably small point for maximum damage. The result was a flicker in the forward array Adrian wanted. The shields flickered several times before it looked like the computers were automatically resetting. That's when the flight of plasma warheads slammed home in almost the same spot. Shield systems overloaded as the computer automatically tried re-routing to keep them functional. Plasma fire erupted all over the forward arc of the warship and even breeched the shields to blister the armor plates in places.

  Adrian had his vulnerable spot, and he looped down and arrowed straight for it as _Eternia_ blasted past trailing laser fire and annoying fighters. The cannon dematerialized from the right hand while Adrian brought the shield up in front of him. He placed his free hand underneath, and the shield expanded to create a kind of tapering cone with which he used to punch through the still flickering shields and hull armor.

   Robots reacted too late to this new threat by jumping out of their seats in search some safe place. A guided human missile exploded through the windows bringing with it heat and fire from the dissipating plasma cloud. Zarin died screaming at the inevitable. Adrian glimpsed bulkheads, corridors, chambers, mechanical rooms, computer control centers, and lots and lots of robots on his passable through the heart of the warship. His passage sucked the plasma fires along with it where it fed upon raw materials inside the ship. Those fires were dying, however, because the reactants were practically used up. He punched through another thick bulkhead to find himself passing through the engineering spaces. Before he realized it, he punched through the thick shielding of the power core. He was upon and through it in an instant and powering through the drive engines a second later. The next thing he knew, Adrian was reconfigured to normal combat mode, shield and rifle in place, and hovering several thousand feet up and a half-mile down range from the dying warship.

   The final clashes of battle on the ground were overshadowed by the stunning eruption of the corvette. The engineering section detonated with the uncontrolled release of energies from the power core. Hull armor rippled, cracked, and peeled away from the space frame as the starship ripped itself apart. The last vestiges of resistance fell minutes after the last capital ship died.

   Adrian coasted in for a soft landing near the gathering survivors amid the ending rain of debris from the corvette. _Eternia_ and the remaining dropship banked in zeroing in on whatever clear space seemed safe enough.

   After the ships landed and shut down their engines a silence fell upon the lands like a heavy oppressive veil. This silence was incredible. It was like watching a television program with the sound muted. The silence became irrationally scarier than the explosive chaos of the battle they just survived.

   The boarding ramp lowered and Jo-jo led the way as the three groups joined fifty meters from the grounded ships. Colonel Markson and his surviving soldiers got their first good look at the colorful suits of power armor. The Guardians got their first good look at the _Eternia_ and all the scorch marks indicating what she and her crew endured. And no one denied they had embarked upon a path from which they could not turn away.

   Unknown to any of the humans, two humans watched from atop the great pyramid that had served for a thousand years as a final resting place for the armor until such time as it was needed.

   Corwin and Kodec Ugnor watched the reunion with interest. After thirty minutes the group broke up to begin salvaging what they could, retrieving the dead, and preparing for departure.

   "And so it begins," Kodec replied ominously.


	14. Epilogue

EPILOGUE 

  World Nation Headquarters

  Former United Nations Building

  New York City, United Stated Earth

  Zero Hour

   "Isn't it about time you people realized the ones posing the most threat to this planet are none other than yourselves?" President Alexander finally had the chance to make his case in favor of launching the rebuilt alien starship, and it was not going well. While he had many supporters, his side was outnumbered nearly two-to-one with a sizeable group undecided.

   Talks of making peace with the Evil Horde inflamed Alexander's anger. These idiots were truly blind to the danger posed by the Horde. They honestly believed what happened on Eternia, Etheria, and countless other worlds would not happen on Earth. Europe didn't think Adolph Hitler would start a World War, or Saddam Hussein didn't think the coalition army would throw his forces out of Kuwait in the early 90's, or Saddam thought the United States and Britain would not invade and topple his régime in the 2003; people seemed to learn only after it was too late.

   President Roshenko was beside himself with anger over Alexander's tone and bold statements. That alone had him convinced he should recall the _Eternia_ mission. He rose from his seat prepared to end this now when the duty officer in the communications room announced an incoming subspace message. A gigantic panel behind Roshenko's podium rolled upward to reveal a blank monitor screen. Lights high overhead dimmed leaving the lights along the walls and on the tables as the only illumination.

   The screen came to life with a blurry image that slowly resolved into the face of Captain Majourny. President Alexander brightened at the sight, though noted to worry lines and fatigue reflected in the woman's eyes. "It's good to see you, captain. We were getting worried."

   Captain Majourny got straight to the point. She acknowledged Alexander with a nod, and switched her gaze to President Roshenko. "Mister President, Starship _Eternia_ reporting in at Zero Hour, 8 May 2017, as requested. Our situation report is as follows. Armor of the Guardians located on uncharted habitable moon after nearly eight hours of searching. Armor was found intact and surprisingly serviceable despite the years of inactivity. A Horde force consisting of four destroyers and two heavy corvettes entered the star system after we landed the troops and hid the _Eternia_ deeper in the system. Horde forces immediately stationed one destroyer and corvette in orbit to prevent escape while the remaining warships descended to ground their forces and seize our landing force.

   "Through surprise and sheer audacity, we destroyed the warships in orbit. The situation we found on the moon was worse than we feared. Two full platoons had been destroyed by the Horde, many by combat units not previously seen. With the use of the armor, human determination, and pure luck, we prevailed. All warships, fighters, and ground forces have been destroyed. We have salvaged weapons, material, a few specimens for the scientists, and are ready for lift-off."

   Stunned silence settled over the council chamber. The _Eternia_ and her crew had won the day, but at a terrible cost. No one had any doubts this was simply the opening round. One starship and crew could not survive long against the entire might of the Horde Empire, even with the mystic armor.

   "What we need to know, Mister President, is do we continue with or without your support," Captain Majourny inquired. Her image was replaced by a shifting litany of images from the battlefield showing what it was they had been up against, and the fury of the battle that had taken place.

   Roshenko cleared his throat. "I take it you plan to continue regardless of our decision?"

   "Correct. We have opened a proverbial Pandora's box. We can't turn back even if we want to."

   Roshenko turned his attention to Alexander, who was trying his best to tone down his pride in his crew. _Damn you for forcing me into this position,_ he thought. _I dare not recall the mission now. The tide has shifted a little bit in his favor. And Captain Majourny has made it clear they intend to continue regardless of what I say. Very well, Alexander, we'll play it your way. For now._ Turning back to the screen still scrolling stark images from the battlefield, World President Roshenko straightened his jacket, and responded, "Very well, captain. In spite of your losses, job well done. Return home to repair your ship, replenish your supplies, and replace your crewmembers."

   "Not good enough, Mister President. We want to hear it."

   _We want to hear it?_ Roshenko thought, the realization slowing dawning on him. Even though he could not see them, _they_ where watching _him_. Alexander was grinning openly, now. Swallowing his pride, the World President proclaimed loud enough for all to hear, "Very well, captain. Return home to heal your wounds and continue your mission." He paused to swallow the bile rising in his throat, choked out, "With our blessings."

   The last image displayed as Captain Majourny informed President Alexander _Eternia_ would be returning in two days, was a shot in a corner of the drop bay were six enormous suits of power armor stood lined up against the wall. This was what many of them sacrificed their lives to acquire. Many of them never saw these amazing suits. The image disappeared and the screen went blank indicating the communication link was severed.

   The tide had shifted, but whether this was good or bad remained to be seen.

  Snake Mountain

  Dark Side of Eternia

  0100 HOURS, 9 May 2017

   A storm blew across the lands this night, a near constant occurrence in this part of the world. Lightning flashes lit the night as thunder rumbled across the landscape punctuating one another in an endless symphony. Driving rain lashed at the stark, rocky terrain weathering it in endless cycles of seasonal upheavals.

   In the heart of the storm, stands a small mountain thrusting defiantly up against the elements determined to weather it away to nothingness. What began as a natural spiked mountain had since been added to. A raging river and waterfall running next to the mountain provided fresh water and a perpetual cacophony. A serpent coiling around the larger of the twin peaks now marred what might have once been a beautiful range. The head, with mouth wide open and fangs bared, jutted out over the raging waterfall hundreds of feet below. The eyes glistened and sparkled in the light of a full moon, and light streamed from several open hangers along the serpent's coiled body.

   In the snake's head lay a throne room only Wes Craven or Clive Barker could love. A stone table dominated the chamber. A large dome with what could have passed for legs adorned the surface. The legs ended in blunt claws draping over the edge. The crystal dome glowed with magical light. That light illuminated only a small portion of the chamber. Ribs lined the walls and small stalagmites littered the corners. Behind the table, directly opposite the passage leading to the open serpent's mouth, stood a throne made entirely of bones. Though fragile-looking, it would support the weight of someone three times the size of its current occupant.

   Both he and the other person in the throne room were wrapped in shadow. The other stood at the table looking into the crystal. The events light years away in an uncharted solar system unfolded there. The figure leaned a little closer to the light. In that pale glow one could see age lined around brown eyes, and full beard streaked with gray.

   _Seven long years, we have waited. He-man returned two years ago, broke the oppressive rule of King Hiss, and was beaten back by reinforcements,_ he thought, remember that time like it was only yesterday._ Now, new warriors prophesied by Granamyr have finally come. I scoffed at the thought of a new generation with the freedom to do what He-man and She-Ra are sworn not to do. Then again, I scoffed at the Sorceress' prophecy of the coming of He-man back when I was Captain of the Guard._

   "Looks like the battle is over, _Old Friend_, the bearded man replied, watching the starship lift off on its journey home.

   The figure on the throne of bone stirred. "Really?" a gravelly voice replied. The man rose from his throne and approached the table. "Indeed it is, _Old Friend_." The cowl hiding his face resembled a black well. Two strips of black leather adorned with carved silver devises caught the pale light and cast eerie reflections against the stone table. He turned away, picking up a staff capped with an elaborate head reminiscent of a ram. The _clang_ of metal striking stone had a hollow echo to it as he left the throne room. "But the war has just begun." His cackling laughter still reverberated in the room long after he had gone, unnerving the bearded man.

   Images of the human starship leaving the habitable moon ended when the ship entered hyperspace where the enchanted devise could not follow. The glow faded in short order plunged the room into darkness.

  Horde Prime's Throne room

  Horde World

  0100 HOURS, 9 May 2017

   A creature many times larger than Granamyr, partly cybernetic, and all evil watched the _Eternia_ even after it jumped to hyperspace. Its power was unlike any in the known galaxy. There wasn't a place that human starship could go that Horde Prime could not follow it. General Rongar and his fleet was already en route, but even before Horde Prime dispatched his most favored servant, it was clear they would arrive too late. All Rongar could do once he got there was try to salvage something with which he could evaluate this new threat.

   The magic globe tracking the starship penetrated the Etherium hull. Horde Prime saw the skeleton crew on duty repairing what they could while guiding the ship to their home planet. The view shifted to the Sorceress sound asleep for the first time in months. Though the ruler of the Horde Empire was way above pleasures of the flesh, a small part of its mind thought the human looked so lovely wrapped up soft, warm fur blankets. The moment passed with a shudder, and he continued searching the starship. All the sleeping Guardians appeared one by one in the globe. All slept soundly after their desperate battle, totally exhausted.

   After a few more minutes of scanning, the view finally settled upon the darkened drop bay lit only by emergency lights. In the portside aft portion lay neat rows of body bags. The remains of those who died in battle save the two on board the dropship shot down during the fighting. Horde Prime had observed the placement of the plaque at the pyramid on honor of those two pilots whose bodies have been vaporized with their ship. The view panned from the rows of bags to the forward section, starboard side. There stood the six abominations, which could end his reign of terror on the galaxy. Six powerful battle suits capable of things even their original owners had not been allowed the time to discover. If it meant the annihilation of all of his robot armies to do it, those suits that absolutely _had_ to be destroyed.

   Something happened just then. The image fizzled, fractured ending with the magical globe exploding. A power unlike anything Horde Prime had ever experienced sensed his prying eyes, sought out the globe, and destroyed it.

   Horde Prime's rage exploded in a thundering roar because the backlash answered the suspicions he had held about those abominations for a thousand years.

  Starship _Eternia_

  Heading Home

  0100 HOURS, 9 May 2017

   In the darkened drop bay stood six silent sentinels awaiting the next battle in their long war to retake the galaxy. A gentle breeze from the environmental control system wafted through the immense bay. Papers rustled on collapsible tables. Chains from overhead hoists clanked as they bumped one another.

   As Horde Primes magic globe panned around the room and finally came to rest on the six suits, something inside them stirred. Had Kodec Ugnor been present she would have recognized it immediately. Six pairs of green lenses for eyes flared to life shining brightly in the dimly lit chamber. Though the suit themselves did not glow this time, their individual power combined into one and lashed out at the vile creature's globe, shattering in on impact.

   Those eyes remained glowing long after the incident as if silently keeping watch for any more incursions, now that their slumber had been interrupted.

END BOOK ONE


	15. Glossary

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Guardians

Adrian Cobretti – War Wing armor (American) (Weapon: plasma canon, beam sabers)

Sonya Broradni – Hawk armor (Russian) (Weapon: beam spear naginato-do)

Jake Rockwell – Gatling Arm armor (American) (Weapon: twin barrel gatling canon, vibro blade)

Brad Johnson – Claw armor (German) (Weapon: twin vibro scimitars)

Jeromy Ironwood – Blitzkrieg armor (British) (Weapon: 2 laser rifles)

Sorceress of Grayskull – Falcon armor (Eternian) (Weapon: enhanced magic, falcon staff, psionic lance)

STARSHIP ETERNIA

Colonel Jo-jo Majourny – captain

Lt. Conner 'Ace' McCloud – helmsman

Ensign Comorov – navigation

Lt. Novina Satori – science specialist

Lt. Alexandra Callahan – computer systems specialist

Lt Harvey 'Harley' Denton – tactical specialist

Lt. Rodney Santana – chief engineer

Lt. Commander Emilio Carter – chief medical officer

Guardian Command

Brigadier General Eugene 'Mean Gene' Hammond – commander

Nicholas 'Nick' Jackson – Research and Development Division Chief

Gabriel 'Gabe' Burns – Research and Development Section Leader

Blain Robards – Chief Scientific Research Specialist

Doctor Susan Blanchard – Guardian Command Chief Surgeon

Colonel Jonathon Markson – Guardian Force commander, Alpha Platoon commander

Captain Hohiro Takamora – Charlie Platoon commander

Lieutenant Thomas Garber – Beta Platoon commander

Lieutenant Kent Howard – Delta Platoon commander

Sergeant Apone – Alpha Platoon

Corporal Antone Frost – Alpha Platoon sniper

Corporal Ferdinant Dietrich – Beta Platoon sniper

Private Naomi Rider – Tracker, linguist

Private Catherine O'Rourke – computer specialist

Lieutenant Alexis Feril – dropship pilot

Lieutenant Gerrod Gambini – dropship pilot

Allies

Lord Dactus – Speleans

Ceratus – Caligars

Queen Elmora – Phantos

King Anonda and Queen Semata – Arcadia

Stratos and Lady Hawk (Delora) – Avion

Buzz-off – Andreenos

King Carnivous – Quaedia

Oracle of the Crystal Sea

Granamyr – Dark Smoke Mountain

Enemies

Horde Forces

Horde Prime – Ruler of the Horde Empire

Hordak – ruler of Etheria

King Hiss – Ruler of the Snake Men and Eternia

General Rongar – Commander, Horde 5th Fleet

Sagan – Rongar's chief scientist

Snake Men

King Hiss

General Rattlor

Kobra Khan

Tung Lashor

Snake Face

Tanglor

Squeeze

Neutrals

Skeletor – ruler of Snake Mountain

Krytta – Skeletor's lover

Lady Moria Vadorian - Fourteenth Monarch of the Dereskígía


End file.
